For the fourth time in five years, Vienna has topped the ranking of the world’s most liveable cities by The Economist Intelligence Unit, the research and analysis unit affiliated with the British weekly The Economist. The Austrian capital took over the lead in this ranking last year. On the other hand, Paris and Lyon are downgrading, penalized by “the demonstrations against the pension reform”, explain the authors of the study.
Paris fell from 19th position in 2022 to 24th in 2023, and Lyon from 25th to 30th place. By way of comparison, London is in 2023 in 46th position and New York in 69th.
The index is based on 30 qualitative and quantitative criteria in the following areas: stability, health system, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. The Austrian capital Vienna offers an almost ideal combination of these five factors and is only penalized by the lack of major sporting events. It is followed by Copenhagen which comes in 2nd place.
Between 3rd and 9th place are Australian, Swiss and Canadian cities, while Osaka (Japan) and Auckland (New Zealand) are both in 10th place.
In 2023, in all the cities studied, the average index of the quality of life reaches its highest level for 15 years, with scores rising in the areas of health, education and culture with the end of pandemic-related measures. On the other hand, the ratings in terms of stability have dropped in many cities, particularly in Europe because of the demonstrations which have marked a number of them.
Cities in Asia and Oceania are the ones that have progressed the most in one year: Wellington (New Zealand) gains 35 places in the ranking, Hanoi (Vietnam) 20, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) 19. The soft underbelly is composed of many Chinese cities.
Kiev in Ukraine marks its return in the 2023 ranking but is now in 165th place, while Damascus in Syria has remained since 2015 the city in the world where people live the least well.