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
I’m sure is not because Monocle released their most liveable cities report just a month ago, but now is The Economist releasing their Liveability rankings with the article Where the grass is greener. While Monocle’s report came in the form of a wonderful edition, perfectly written and documented, the Economist Intelligence Unit barely delivers a table with the rankings without much analysis behind. True, Monocle used criteria such “fair balance of sunny and warm days” and “availability of drinks after hours”, but the overall delivery convinced. According to The Economist
The survey takes over 40 factors into consideration which are weighted across five different categories: Stability; Healthcare; Culture & Environment; Education; and Infrastructure. Across the survey a mixture of quantitative and qualitative data are used, which are combined to give an overall Quality of Life Index rating.
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However I wasn’t able to find such factors anywhere, not even after paying for the full report. Anyway, this are the top 10 according to them, nothing that we haven’t seen before:
Vancouver, Canada
Melbourne, Australia
Vienna, Austria
Perth, Australia
Toronto, Canada
Adelaide, Australia
Sydney, Australia
Copenhagen, Denmark
Geneva, Switzerland
Zurich, Switzerland
Still, I never get tired of ranking cities and feeling a bit proud on behalf [...]
