A new report by The Economist Intelligence Unit has named Toronto as the world's seventh most liveable city for a second year straight. However, Calgary and Vancouver ranked ahead in fifth and sixth place, respectively.
For the second year in a row, Vienna, Austria held the top spot on the list. In 2018, the city displaced Melbourne, Australia, which spent seven consecutive years at number one. Australia and Canada each have three cities in the top ten, with Japan and Denmark closing out the list.
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The liveability survey ranks cities based on a rating of relative comfort on over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories. These categories include stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.
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Toronto scored 100 in three categories — stability, health care and education. Vancouver got a perfect score for culture and environment and Calgary for infrastructure, each beating out Toronto. Overall, Toronto scored less across the board than its Canadian counterparts.
“Overall, our index remains dominated by medium-sized cities in wealthy countries. These cities have well-funded public health care systems, compulsory and high-quality education, and functional road and rail infrastructure,” the report notes. “The provision of these services is assisted by the presence of fully democratic electoral systems and generally low levels of corruption.”
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War-torn and developing nations fill the bottom of the ranks. At present, Caracas, Venezuela holds the spot for the least liveable city on Earth. This is largely due to political and economic turmoil in the country and "the fight for legitimacy has impeded its ability to provide basic services for its citizens."
The World's Top 10 Most Liveable Cities In 2019
1. Vienna, Austria
2. Melbourne, Australia
3. Sydney, Australia
4. Osaka, Japan
5. Calgary, Canada
6. Vancouver, Canada
7. (tie) Toronto, Canada
7. (tie) Tokyo, Japan
9. Copenhagen, Denmark
10. Adelaide, Australia
The World's Least Liveable Cities In 2019
1. Caracas, Venezuela
2. Algiers, Algeria
3. Douala, Cameroon
4. Harare, Zimbabwe
5. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
6. Karachi, Pakistan
7. Tripoli, Libya
8. Dhaka, Bangladesh
9. Damascus, Syria
10. Dakar, Senegal
