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 of those cities that I’ve come to know one way or another.
Update: after corresponding with the Editor of the report at the Economist Intelligence Unit I was given access to the full report which documents their methodology. The ranking is based on 5 categories:
- Stability (25%): crime, conflict
- Healthcare (20%): private & public healthcare
- Culture & Environment (25%): weather, freedoms, culture, food, goods
- Education (10%): private & public education
- Infrastructure (20%): public transportation, international connections, housing, services, telecomminications
As suspected, their analysis is far more methodic but is intended to help companies planning to expand make decisions about how to compensate workers being transferred.
The survey was conducted in June 2007 so if you’re curious about the ranking of your city, send me a note and I’ll share the data.
I am sure Milan is very low in the list. Pollited and small, without green and in a strong crisis of identity. I am living half year in Berlin : very high quality of life, green, rivers, lakes, culture and metropolitan mood !
Hi, I am doing a project for a class assessing the livibility in Europe. Would it be possible to get a copy of the report from you? As a college student I simply can not afford $250 for a report. I really hope you can help. Thank you so much!
[...] the economist on liveability (11) [...]
Hi!
It’s possible for you to send me the complete report, I’m living in Milan and I want to know which is the position in the rank.
Thanks
[...] 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 [...]
Asbrox: This post was written two years ago and provides the rankings published in 2007. I’ll be sure to write an update with the new version. Thanks!
Given the list of the top 10 cities you post as coming form the “full report,” I suspect you haven’t seen either the long or the short public report. The ACTUAL list (http://tinyurl.com/musoz8) is:
1. Vancouver 98%
2. Vienna 97.9%
3. Melbourne 97.5%
4. Toronto 97.2%
5. Perth 96.6%
Calgary 96.6
7. Helsinski 96.2%
8. Geneva 96.1%
Sydney 96.1%
Zurich 96.1%
Maybe next time if you pay for the report they won’t dupe you?
I will contact you by email. Incidentally I was just preparing a blog post on the latest Mercer rankings.
This is an interesting blog which appears to be even more important with the proliferation of rankings.
I’m currently conducting some research on the methodology of city rankings indexes. The Economist/Mercer indexes interest me the most and I would be grateful if you got in contact to let me know your thoughts on the methodologies. I’m unsure about the Economist Liveability rankings myself.
Am investigating spatial inequality and was wondering what criteria were used and if there were any statistics based on British cities (for educational purposes).
Hello,
I am very interested to see the report. I live in San Francisco and thought that it would have to be high on the list … can you please share.
Thank you.
Andy Wunder
are you able to send me the methodology of the survey, and how sydney fared in the rankings?
Hi. Working up a set of quality of life indicators for a local authority in London and was hoping you’d be willing to share the full methodology with me? Help much appreciated!
Just curious, what positions do Moscow and St.Petersburg have?