According to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)’s Global Liveability Index 2024, Vienna, the capital of Austria, has topped the index as the most liveable city for the third consecutive year.
- Denmark’s Copenhagen maintained its second position, while Switzerland’s Zurich moved up from 6th place(2023) to 3rd on the 2024 list.
Note: No Indian City is ranked on the 2024 list of top 10 liveable cities in the world.
About EIU’s Global Liveability Index:
i.The EIU Index ranks 173 cities across the world with the aim of showing how comfortable these cities are to live in.
ii.The index ranks cities based on 30 indicators divided into 5 categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.
Global Liveability Index 2024: Top 5 and Bottom 5:
| Most Liveable | Least Liveable | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | City (Country) | Index value | Rank | City (Country) | Index value |
| 1 | Vienna (Austria) | 98.4 | 173 | Damascus (Syria) | 30.7 |
| 2 | Copenhagen (Denmark) | 98.0 | 172 | Tripoli (Lebanon) | 40.1 |
| 3 | Zurich (Switzerland) | 97.1 | 171 | Algiers (Algeria) | 42.0 |
| 4 | Melbourne (Australia) | 97.0 | 170 | Lagos (Nigeria) | 42.2 |
| 5 | Calgary (Canada) | 96.8 | 169 | Karachi (Pakistan) | 42.7 |
Key Highlights:
i.Vienna has secured perfect scores of 100 in stability, healthcare, education and infrastructure categories and secured 93.5 in culture and environment due to the lack of major sporting events.
ii.Four Asia-Pacific cities—Melbourne and Sydney (Australia), Osaka (Japan) and Auckland (New Zealand) have been featured in the top ten most liveable cities in the world. The Australian cities continue to rank within the top 20.
iii.Western Europe has retained its position as the most liveable region in the world, with Copenhagen(Denmark), Zurich and Geneva(Switzerland) included in the top 10.
- The 30 Western European cities have gained an average score of 92 out of 100 in the 2024 ranking.
iv.Calgary and Vancouver of Canada are the only two North American cities in the top ten.
v.Toronto (Canada) is ranked 12th in the 2024 index. The city has seen the biggest decline among Canadian cities and has dropped out of the list of the top 10 most liveable cities. Toronto was ranked 9th in the 2023 index.
vi.Los Angeles and New York of the United States of America (USA), are ranked at 58th and 70th respectively.
- All of the 25 cities of the USA have gained the highest tier of liveability (above 80) on the index.
vii.Singapore scored 92.9 and is ranked 26th, including a perfect 100 score in healthcare. Hong Kong has climbed 11-spot leap to 50th rank in the 2024 index.
viii.The bottom of liveability rankings is dominated by cities from Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa.
Note: The average score across the 173 cities showed marginal improvement to 76.1 out of 100 due to geopolitical conflicts, civil unrest and a housing crisis across the globe.
About Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU):
EIU is the research and analysis division of the Economist Group the sister company to The Economist newspaper.
Managing Director– Robin Bew
Headquarters– London, The United Kingdom
Founded– 1946
