A new international survey has found Melbourne to be the third most pleasant city in which to live in the world, with other Australian cities also scoring highly.
The Economist Intelligence Unit's global liveability survey considers 30 indicators across five broad categories of stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.
With an overall score of 97 per cent, Melbourne was just three per cent off perfect, according to the research. Sydney placed seventh, with 96.1 per cent, while Perth and Adelaide tied in equal eighth place 95.9 per cent. New Zealand’s Auckland came in 10th place.
However, the top spot of ‘most-liveable city’ was snapped up by the Canadian city of Vancouver with a score of 98 per cent, which bodes well for its job as host of the Winter Olympics this year. Conversely, as security concerns abound in Sub-Saharan Africa following the Africa Cup of Nations, Football World Cup host Johannesburg came in joint 92nd place with a score of 69.1 per cent. Nonetheless, this is still the highest score in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Elsewhere, European and North American cities continue to dominate the top tier of the ranking, alongside cities in Australia and New Zealand.
Other regions fair less well, especially Sub-Saharan Africa, with security concerns under renewed scrutiny following attacks on the Togo national football team in the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations in Angola. The ongoing social and economic crisis in Zimbabwe ensures that Harare is still the worst of the 140 cities surveyed.
The Economist Intelligence Unit's liveability survey assesses living conditions in 140 cities around the world. A rating of relative comfort for 30 indicators is assigned across five broad categories: stability; healthcare; culture and environment; education; and infrastructure. The survey gives an overall rating of 0-100, where 1 is intolerable and 100 is ideal.
