Vienna again crowned as the world's best city for quality of life, in 2024
Time and again, Vienna, the capital city of Austria, has been voted the city with the best quality of life in the World.
The City of Vienna Government says "At the beginning of 2023, 1,102,570 Viennese were of Austrian origin, while 879,526 were of foreign origin. The main countries of origin of Viennese who are foreign nationals or were born abroad have hardly changed over the past years: at the beginning of 2023, 100,199 people originated from Serbia, 75,907 from Turkey, 69,265 from Germany and 55,151 from Poland.
The current metro area population of Vienna in 2024 is 1,990,000.
The annual
Global Liveability Index ranks the liveability
of 173 cities across five key categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.
The 2024 survey saw a rise in the average scores, driven by gains in healthcare and education across developing countries. However, this has been largely offset by declines in scores for several top-tier cities.
According to the survey from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a unit of The Economist, Vienna is the world's most liveable city. At the same time, Dublin earned a 39th ranking, falling 7 ranks — and the third biggest drop among any country.
Brussels has dropped five places, from 30 to 35. This is one of the biggest declines in the Liveability Index for 2024.
Tel Aviv, Israel, plunged 20 ranks to 112th.
Overall, Western Europe remains the world’s most liveable region with eight cities in the top 20.
The 30 Western European cities in this year’s ranking reported an impressive 92 out of 100 average score. However, the region has seen the biggest fall in score, owing to a deterioration in the stability category, which was also the biggest declining factor in all five categories in the index globally.
Vienna got an overall score of 98.4 with full scores in terms of its stability, health care, education and infrastructure. Only in the culture and environment category did it perform slightly less strongly, with 93.5 due to a lack of major sporting events!!
Copenhagen got a score of 98.
Milan, Rome, Lisbon, Edinburgh and Reykjavik, had scores of 80-90.
Athens had a score in the 60-80 range to 35. This is one of the biggest declines in the Liveability Index for 2024.
Farmers protesting in Brussels
Western Europe: The region has 24 top cities.
North America: The United States and Canada have 15 top cities.
Asia-Pacific: This large region has 10 top cities.
Eastern Europe: Budapest is in the top five category in the cities that have improved the most over the past twelve months. The Hungarian capital scored 92.0 out of 100 points, moving up seven places to rank 32nd.
At a world level, coming in second on the top list after Vienna — also the third year in a row — is Copenhagen, Denmark. Zurich, Switzerland ousted Melbourne, Australia to take the third place on the list in 2024 (a position it held in 2022).
The Karlskirche (Church of St. Charles) is the last great work of the eminent Baroque architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. Completed in 1739, it was built by a vow made by Emperor Charles VI during a plague. The church is dedicated to the Habsburg emperor's namesake, St. Karl Borromäus.
Ranked: The 20 Best Cities To Live in the World
1. Vienna, Austria
2. Copenhagen, Denmark
3. Zurich, Switzerland
4. Melbourne, Australia
5. Calgary, Canada (tied with Geneva)
5. Geneva, Switzerland (tie)
7. Sydney, Australia (tied with Vancouver)
7. Vancouver, Canada (tie)
9. Osaka, Japan (tied with Auckland)
9. Auckland, New Zealand (tie)
11. Adelaide, Australia
12. Toronto, Canada
13. Helsinki, Finland
14. Tokyo, Japan
15. Perth, Australia
16. Brisbane, Australia
17. Frankfurt, Germany (tied with Luxembourg)
17. Luxembourg, Luxembourg (tie)
19. Amsterdam, Netherlands
20. Wellington, New Zealand
London has a ranking of 45 (big metropolises do not generally get high rankings but Tokyo has a 14th ranking!).
In 23rd place, Honolulu, Hawaii was the highest US city on the list, while Atlanta, Georgia moved up four places to number 29.
Los Angeles was further down the list in 58th place, while New York came in at No. 70.
An acute housing crisis has pulled down infrastructure scores for Canada, with Toronto registering the biggest decline among the Canadian cities, and dropping out of the list of the top ten most liveable cities to the 12th position, leaving Calgary and Vancouver as the only two North American cities in the top ten.
However, North America achieved the highest average score for education. Infrastructure was lower than the previous year in Canada due to “an acute housing crisis,” which has affected several regions.
As for cities in the Middle East and North Africa, the EIU said that strong gains in education and healthcare in many of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have pushed up the region’s overall liveability. The biggest increase in scores was registered by the cities in the UAE (Abu Dhabi and Dubai), and Saudi Arabia (Riyadh, Jeddah and Al Khobar).
Despite improvements, the region is also home to the least liveable cities — Algiers (Algeria), Tripoli (Libya) and Damascus (Syria).
Abu Dhabi was the highest ranked in the Mena region, placed 76th globally, up two spots from last year, with a score of 81.7 out of 100. It was followed by Dubai, which ranked 78 globally, also up two spots from the 2023 index, scoring 80.8.
“Of the 58 Asian cities in the index, 16 have attained the highest level of liveability (score above 80),” said Barsali Bhattacharyya, deputy industry director at EIU.
Four Asia-Pacific cities — Melbourne and Sydney (Australia), Osaka (Japan) and Auckland (New Zealand) are among this year’s top ten most liveable cities in the world.
The Australasian cities continue to rank within the top 20 but they were downgraded, owing to an ongoing housing crisis that has led to an all-time low availability of rental properties in many of the cities.
Hong Kong jumped from 61st to 50th, thanks to its increasing scores for stability and healthcare. Other Asian cities which also have a significant climb include Singapore, which moved to 26th, Ho Chi Minh City, which rose from 133rd to 126th; and Beijing, which climbed from 81st to 77th.
In 2023 Kuala Lumpur had a 94 ranking. The local media ignored the 2024 result.
Smog in Delhi, India, November 2023
Five Indian cities were featured in the report, with Delhi and Mumbai tied at 141st rank with a score of 60.2 out of 100, followed by Chennai (59.9), Ahmedabad (58.9), and Bengaluru (58.7), in the 2023 index.
Bangladesh, at 168th, and Pakistan, at 169th, came last among all Asian countries.
Asia’s 10 most livable cities: Melbourne, Australia (4th globally), Sydney, Australia (7th), Osaka, Japan (9th tie), Auckland, New Zealand (9th tie) Adelaide, Australia (11th), Tokyo, Japan (14th), Perth, Australia (15th), Brisbane, Australia (16th), Wellington, New Zealand (20th), Singapore, Singapore (26th).
The worst cities in the world to live in, 2024
