What does it mean to live well or very well in a city? According to the standards of the Economist and its sister company, the Economist Information Agency (EIU), whether a city provides a good life must always take into account the following factors: social stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.
Based on these criteria, this economic authoritative magazine once again released the global annual livable city rankings, evaluating a total of 173 cities according to the above categories and ratings. If you look back at the 2023 rankings at the same time, the top few positions don’t look major.
This year, the Austrian capital Vienna won the top spot again, achieving excellent results in four of the above five categories, but due to the lack of major sports events, it scored a low score in the cultural and environmental categories, and finally scored a total of 93.5 points on a rating of 100 points.
The 2 to 4th place in the global livable city rankings are Copenhagen, Zurich and Geneva. All three European cities are known for their small size and small population, which often means that the crime rate is low and the public transportation system is not too crowded. At the same time, Calgary and Vancouver, two Canadian cities, won the fifth and sixth places respectively; starting from the seventh place, there are four Asia-Pacific cities: Melbourne, Sydney, Osaka, and Auckland. Here is a list of 10 best quality cities in the world:
Top 10 Global Livable Cities Ranking in 2024:
- Vienna (Austria)
- Copenhagen (Denmark)
- Zurich (Switzerland)
- Geneva (Switzerland)
- Calgary (Canada)
- Vancouver (Canada)
- Melbourne (Australia)
- Sydney (Australia)
- Osaka (Japan)
- Auckland (New Zealand)
Zurich, one of the two Swiss cities where you live best in 2024.Sheepsplash.
The 10 worst quality of life in the world in 2024
On the other hand, the rankings of “The Economist” also reveal the city with the worst quality of life in the world, and Damascus, the capital of Syria, won the last place. Damascus, ranked 173rd, has been in this ranking since 2013. At the same time, Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, which was deeply affected by the Ukrainian Russian War, scored badly in 2024, and entered the top 10 cities with the worst quality of life in the world for the second consecutive year. Although Israel's Tel Aviv did not fall to the last few places, due to the influence of the Gaza War, its stability score was not high, and its infrastructure, culture and environment also dropped 7.2 and 6.7 points respectively, causing its ranking to drop by 20 places instantly, reaching 112th, becoming the city with the largest decline in ranking in this year's survey.
It is worth noting that after experiencing a sharp decline in the global average livability index of the COVID-19 pandemic, the average livability of global cities has only increased by 0.06 points in the past year, which seems to be a gap compared with the 2.84 points that rose in the first 12 months of June 2023. “Civil storms swept across Europe, French farmers blocked the expressway to Paris, and protests against immigration policies broke out across the continent. The unrest in Noumea, New Caledonia, and protests on university campuses across the United States after the investigation did not bode well for next year's index,” the Economist explained.
