Sydney, which ranked seventh a year ago, dropped out of the top 10 due to a “heightened perceived threat of terrorism”, according to the report.
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Out of the 140 cities surveyed, Melbourne is followed by Vienna in second place with three Canadian cities – Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary – close behind, all of which have held on to their titles from past year.
In fact, Calgary and Adelaide, Australia tied for fifth this year, as they did in 2014.
“The decline is largely a result of heightened fears over terrorism with more than 1,000 reported attacks in 2016 so far, with incidents in France, Turkey, the United States and Belgium being the most high profile”, The Economist’s report said.
The prestigious Economist Intelligence Unit’s Liveability Index surveys 140 of the world’s best cities, and of course we’ve come out on top.
“Six of the top 10 scoring cities are in Australia and Canada, which have, respectively, population densities of 3.1 and 3.9 people per square kilometre”. “As global instability grows, these movements have been overwhelmingly negative, with no city in the top tier registering a score improvement”. The scores are compiled and weighted between 1 and 100 with 1 considered intolerable and 100 being ideal.
Baptist explained that both cities rank in the top rating of livability, with Singapore beating Hong Kong by having better infrastructure.
In its annual rankings of city liveability, which scores cities based on factors such as stability, infrastructure and culture, the EIU said numerous scores had declined.
It claims that heightened tensions in the South China Sea have also lowered liveability scores for Chinese cities.
Each year, Melbourne offers a world-class calendar of major events across the sport, entertainment, culture, industry and lifestyle sectors, adding to the city’s atmosphere and appeal.
Damascus, the Syrian capital city, languishes at the bottom of the table, followed by Tripoli in Libya and Lagos in Nigeria.
Rounding out the top 10 are Auckland, New Zealand, Helsinki, Finland and Hamburg, Germany.
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The analysts assigned each city a rating based on more than 30 qualitative and quantitative factors, such as health-care availability, social or religious restrictions, quality of public transport, threat of terror attacks and prevalence of crime.
