liveability rankings 2009

Not much has changed since the last time I reported on the Liveability report from The Economist Intelligence Unit in 2007. Vancouver is still the best place to live overall according to the 2009 ranking:

Vancouver, Canada
Vienna, Austria
Melbourne, Australia
Toronto, Canada
Perth, Australia
Calgary, Canada
Helsinki, Finland
Geneva, Switzerland
Sydney, Australia
Zurich, Switzerland

I’m finding the Mercer’s 2009 Quality of Living survey much more useful as it provides a special ranking for hubs with the best infrastructure. Note that Mercer’ survey is meant to be used as a comparison tool to determine compensation packages for companies with personnel abroad. Yet, as usual, it is fun to make a list of the cities where you would want to live next, right?

Here are the Top 5 cities in each region, according to the Mercer survey:

Americas
Asia Pacific
Europe
Middle East & Africa

Vancouver
Auckland
Vienna
Dubai

Toronto
Sydney
Zurich
Port Louis

Ottawa
Wellington
Geneva
Abu Dhabi

Montreal
Melbourne
Dusseldorf
Cape Town

Calgary
Perth
Munich
Port Elizabeth

best cities in 2020

In their article “The 20 cities of 2020” Stefan Linssen and Christopher Sindik present a method for evaluating the cities taking sustainability to the next level and creating specific plans that will have them improve their overall status as a Global Sustainability Center by the year 2020.

While the article mentions the variety of factors that were considered, it is not clear what the evaluation methodology or how the scores were assigned, but there are plenty of notes about the various initiatives underway to make these cities worthy of their inclusion in this ranking.

Here is the list of the top 10 as ranked by their average score in 2020.

London – 9.3
New York – 9.28
Singapore – 8.85
Toronto – 8.75
Melbourne – 8.51
Curitiba – 8.3
Abu Dhabi – 7.96
Frankfurt – 7.9
Hyderabad – 7.63
Cape Town – 7.2

With such favorable prospects on any one of these cities, it may be worth investing a little time scouting them to become more intimate with their rhythm of life.