A shift back towards normality after the covid-19 pandemic and incremental improvements in
liveability made by many developing countries have been the biggest drivers of changes in EIU’s
global liveability rankings. With covid restrictions diminished, the 2023 survey (conducted between
February 13th and March 12th) show a noticeable improvement across the world.

The average index score across all 172 cities (excluding Kyiv) in our survey has now reached 76.2 out of 100, up from 73.2
a year ago. This is the highest score in 15 years for the original comparable list of 140 cities. Healthcare
scores have improved significantly, with smaller gains for education, culture, environment, and
infrastructure. Only stability has seen a small decline, reflecting increasing perceptions of corruption
and civil unrest in many cities amid a cost-of-living crisis and an uptick in crime in some cities.
This return to relative normality means frequent winner Vienna retains its position as the
world’s most livable city in the 2023 survey.

The Austrian capital slipped down the rankings in 2021 when its famous museums and restaurants faced restrictions containing the pandemic; this was a rare slip-up for a city that has now ranked top in eight of the past ten six-monthly surveys. The city continues to offer an unsurpassed combination of stability, good infrastructure, strong education, healthcare services, and plenty of culture and entertainment, with one of its few downsides being a relative lack of major sporting events. The same is true of Copenhagen, another frequent high performer that has kept its position in second place from last year. Melbourne and Sydney have moved up to fill spots claimed last year by Western European cities such as Frankfurt and Amsterdam. The Australian cities, which bounced up and down the rankings during the pandemic, are now in third and fourth place. They had seen their scores in the healthcare category improve since last year when they were still affected by covid waves that stressed their healthcare systems. Further down the top ten, in the Swiss cities of Zurich (6th place) and Geneva (joint 7th), education category scores have risen since last year. In the Canadian cities of Vancouver (5th), Calgary (joint 7th), and Toronto (9th), scores for stability are up compared with last year when anti-vaccine protests impacted these cities. The end of covid-related restrictions has boosted the culture and environment ratings of the Japanese city of Osaka (10th). /EIU