Vienna tops Global Liveability Index for third consecutive year

Vienna's unyielding dominance in global liveability rankings underscores its status as the world's most livable city.

Alongside Vienna leading the rankings, three other European cities secured spots in the top 10 this year, despite global instability and rising living costs. Vienna, renowned for its beauty, history, and culture, continues to hold its position as the most livable city globally, according to The Economist’s Global Liveability Index.

For the third year running, the Austrian capital has achieved this accolade, marking its ninth win in the past 11 reports, Caliber.Az reports citing the foreign media.

While Vienna maintained its dominance with top scores in four out of five categories, it didn't achieve a perfect score across all metrics. Despite this, the city's reputation for exceptional quality of life remains firmly established. The top 10 list has seen minimal changes from 2023, with a few cities either advancing or declining in the rankings. Western European cities, in particular, have strengthened their presence, occupying the top three positions and holding four places overall in this year’s rankings.

How are the rankings decided?

Liveability is inherently subjective, and The Economist’s Global Liveability Index, while influential, is not without its limitations. The rankings are derived from scores in five key categories: stability, culture and environment, education, healthcare, and infrastructure, each rated out of 100. The final city rankings are determined by averaging these scores.

The index assesses 30 different data points within these categories. For instance, stability is measured by factors like terrorism risk, civil unrest, and crime rates. Healthcare and education are evaluated based on service quality and accessibility. Infrastructure scores consider public transport, roads, housing, and utilities.

This year, the average score improved to 76.1 out of 100, reflecting gains in education and healthcare. However, the stability category saw a significant decline. This drop is attributed to increased protests in Europe related to immigration and agriculture, as well as ongoing global unrest and wars. The cost of living crisis has exacerbated issues, with inflation driving up housing costs in cities across Australia and Canada, where rental availability is low and property prices are soaring.

Eastern Europe catching up with the West

Reflecting Vienna's consistent top performance, western Europe continues to be the most liveable region globally, leading in four out of five categories in The Economist’s index. This year, 30 cities from western Europe appeared in the rankings, achieving an impressive average score of 92 out of 100.

However, the region’s overall score has declined since last year due to increasing instability in countries like Germany and Ireland, which have experienced significant protests and disruptions.

Eastern Europe saw the most notable improvement, particularly in higher education and healthcare, securing fourth place overall. Budapest made significant progress, moving up seven spots to 32nd with a score of 92. Belgrade and Bucharest also saw improvements, climbing six and five places respectively to share the 94th position with a score of 74.5.

Conversely, western Europe saw substantial declines in several cities. Dublin fell seven places to 39th, while German cities experienced notable drops: Munich decreased by six places to 27th, and Hamburg dropped five spots. Stuttgart, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Brussels, and Barcelona also saw their rankings fall.

The largest decline was noted in Tel Aviv, which plummeted 20 positions from 92nd to 112th. This drop was attributed to worsening stability scores due to the Gaza conflict, along with declines in culture, environment, and infrastructure categories.