Vancouver Remains World's Most Livable City: Survey
For the fifth year
At the other end of the spectrum was Harare, Zimbabwe, once a beautiful city but after three decades of rule under Robert Mugabe is squalid. Vancouver took top spot with a score of 98 per cent based on rankings including health care, infrastructure, culture, environment and education. The Economist surveyed 140 cities.
Vancouver deserves to be at the top of the list, but it can just as easily be knocked off, according to Tourism Vancouver president Rick Antonson. “This is something we can never, ever take for granted,” he said. “It’s something as a Vancouver resident it’s wonderful since you have your own set of glasses to look through. Given what this means to visitors, this means the city has all the right attributes. But being able to sustain something like that is a constant watch. It has to be top of mind that we do not let something like that slip.”
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson was also pleased with the ranking, which Vancouver first earned
Eight of the 10 top spots went to cities
“Only petty crime presents any difficulties for Vancouver, although this would be a shortfall of any such location,” it said.
Jon Copestake, the report’s editor, said that mid-sized cities
Pittsburgh was the top U.S. city with
29th place, just ahead of Honolulu, while Los Angeles moved up three
places to 44th and New York held onto the 56th spot. London moved up
one place to 53rd while Paris came
The top Asian city was Osaka at number 12, tying Geneva, Switzerland and beating out the Japanese capital of Tokyo, which came
At the other end of the list, African and Asian nations made up the bottom of the survey’s rankings. Many of those are subsumed
“Conflict is responsible for many of the poorest performing scores,” the report said, pointing to issues such as violence, crime, civil insurgency and war.
The top 10 most livable cities
1. Vancouver
2. Melbourne, Australia
3. Vienna, Austria
4. Toronto
5. Calgary
6. Helsinki, Finland
7. Sydney, Australia
8. Perth, Australia
8. Adelaide, Australia
10. Auckland, New Zealand
The 10 least livable cities:
1. Harare, Zimbabwe
2. Dhaka, Bangladesh
3. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
4. Lagos, Nigeria
5. Algiers, Algeria
6. Karachi, Pakistan
7. Douala, Cameroon
8. Tehran, Iran
9. Dakar, Senegal
10. Colombo, Sri Lanka