VIENNA: Vienna is still the world’s most liveable city for a third year in a row, while the rating of Tel Aviv in Israel slumped, according to a new survey published on Thursday.

In The Economist’s annual ranking, the Austrian capital again came first, followed by the Danish capital Copenhagen and Zurich in Switzerland. Melbourne in Australia and Calgary in Canada completed the top five in the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Global Liveability Index.

“Western Europe remains the most liveable region, but has seen a decline in stability scores amid increasing instances of protests [….] on a variety of issues,” said a statement from the EIU.

Those issues included the rise of far-right extremism, EU agricultural policy and anti-immigration, EIU said in a press release. Vienna got full scores in terms of its stability, health care, education and infrastructure.

Overall global liveability was up slightly over the past year, it added. But the “improvement is only marginal, held back by geopolitical conflicts, civil unrest and a housing crisis across many of the cities” amid inflation. Continuing stress on liveability was “unlikely to ease in the near future,” it said.

Tel Aviv’s ranking fell more than any other city, down by 20 places to 112th.

The capital of war-torn Syria, Damascus, was again ranked the least liveable city.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2024