Melbourne retains ‘most liveable city’ rank

For the seventh year in a row Melbourne has topped The Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) World’s Most Liveable City ranking.

Melbourne’s score of 97.5 out of 100 remained unchanged from last year to beat the field of 140 cities. Melbourne’s relatively low crime rate was one of the main reasons that it outranked other high performing cities.

“No city in the world has topped the [index] for seven consecutive years in its own right,” said Robert Doyle, Lord Mayor of Melbourne. “This world record is an amazing feat that all Melburnians should be extremely proud of today.”

Doyle said the city continues to work with other levels of government to ensure it remains a great place to live.

“There will always be naysayers and whingers, and of course we are not perfect,” he said. “No great world city is, but we should be very proud of the work we all do together to make Melbourne the best city in the world. We do not take this title for granted and work constantly to ensure we are protecting and enhancing our liveability for future generations.”

Vienna came in a close second, with the other top five cities–remaining unchanged from last year–all coming from Australia or Canada, including Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary and Adelaide–which both shared fifth place.

Helsinki and Hamburg were the only other European cities to feature in the top ten. The EIU report highlights the ongoing threat of terrorism globally continues to have a negative impact on the liveability of cities.

“Western Europe has become a focal point for mounting concerns, and repeated attacks in France and the UK have had a contagion effect, raising terror alerts and lowering stability scores in cities across the region,” says the report.

In total there are 12 cities that have moved up the rankings in the past year, including Amsterdam, Reykjavik, Budapest, Singapore and Montevideo. This has been mainly due to increasing cultural availability and falling crime rates.

The bottom of the table includes cities that have been hit by civil war and conflict. Twelve continue to occupy the very bottom, including Lagos which is threatened by Boko Haram, Kiev which is  facing unrest and economic instability, and Tripoli and Damascus which have seen increased hostilities from Islamic State.