Among the Visegrad Four nations, Budapest, Hungary, was highest, at 45.
Advertisement
Under the five categories were 30 qualitative and quantitative factors measured by data gathered mostly from within the EIU, with some coming from other organizations like the World Bank and Transparency global.
Monocle conducted another most livable city survey in June and ranked Tokyo, Japan, as No. 1, according to The Huffington Post.
War-torn Damascus, Syria, was in last place. While Melbourne, Australia has remained the top city for the past five years, Jon Copestake, the editor of the survey, says the “hostage siege in Sydney late last year has put Australia on a high terror alert, which could affect future scores”, according to Neos Kosmos. No cities in the United States make it into the top 10.
Since 2010, the report shows, that the liveability across the world has fallen 1 percent due to a decline in stability and safety.
The sharpest drops included Tripoli, Kyiv and Damascus, which each fell by more than 20 per cent. These cities illustrate how “conflict is, unsurprisingly, the key factor in undermining wider livability”, the authors wrote. Megacities like London and New York do relatively poorly on the scale, the EIU stated. Melbourne won with 97.5 out of 100, while Vienna had 97.4 and Vancouver earned 97.3.
Still, he concedes that the city has a ways to go before it can be considered a desirable place to live.
He noted instability and unrest had undermined the scores of a number of cities globally.
The last 12 months have witnessed many battle ridden days, starting from the terrorist shooting in France and Tunisia to the on-going combat in Ukraine, Syria and Iraq to contain the IS militant force.
“Meanwhile, protests over matters like police brutality, democracy and austerity have also raised the threat of civil unrest in many countries, notably the US where the deaths of a number of black people in police custody have led to widespread protests and accusations of racism. The city is not as strong as it used to be”, he said.
In response, Tom Rafferty, the EIU’s economist for Asia, said, “environment, particularly air pollution, might be the most grave concern in China”.
Cities moving up the ranking are largely in countries that have enjoyed periods of relative stability following falls in livability.
Advertisement
One criticism of the EIU ranking is that it tends to heavily favor English-speaking countries.
