Which is the most liveable city in the world in 2019?

Vienna remained at the top of the Global Liveable Index prepared by Economist Intelligence Unit. The Austrian capital scored 99.1 out of a total 100, to be adjudged the most liveable city in the world for the second straight year.

Economist Intelligence Unit, related to the Economist magazine, weighs cities on five parameters:

• Stability (crime, terror threat, violence, etc) – 25 per cent weight
• Healthcare (availability of private and public medical facilities, drugs, etc) – 20 per cent
• Culture and environment (climate, corruption, censorship, availability of goods and services, etc) – 25 per cent
• Education (private and public) – 10 per cent
• Infrastructure (transport, housing, basic utilities, global linkages, etc) – 20 per cent

Australia’s Melbourne continued to be No.2 after losing the top spot to the European city at the end of a seven-year golden run. Sydney, also in Australia, moved up two places to third thanks to a better culture and environment score.

Japanese port city Osaka ranked fourth, improving its transport, outperforming capital Tokyo (joint No.7).  The three places in between went to Canada’s Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto.

Danish capital Copenhagen and Australia’s Adelaide completed the top 10, reflecting how mostly mid-sized cities of the developed economies dominated the index.

The two Japanese cities are among the world’s 10 most populous (according to World Population Review). Tokyo, the most crowded, housed more than 37 million people and Osaka more than 19 million. None of the others in the top 10, however, crossed seven million.

The bottom 10 of the 140 cities, on the contrary, featured cities mostly from the Global South: Damascus in violence-struck Syria, Lagos in Nigeria, Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, Libyan capital Tripoli, Pakistan’s port city Karachi, Port Moresby — the capital of Papua New Guinea, Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, Cameroon’s Douala, Algerian capital Algiers and Venezuela’s capital Caracas.

In India, New Delhi dropped six places to 118 mainly because of air pollution and increase in petty crimes. Mumbai also lost a place to settle at 119 mainly due to poor scores in culture.

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