Three Canadian cities have made the list of the world’s top 10 most livable cities in a long-running ranking of 173 metropolises. In the report from the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Global Liveability Index 2023, released on June 21:
Vancouver scored in fifth place, followed by Calgary in seventh and Toronto in the ninth spot. The Global Liveability index, which the EIU publishes annually, ranks cities out of a total 100 points, based on scores in five categories including stability, health care , culture, environment , education and infrastructure.
Scores this year improved overall and came in at the highest in 15 years among the 140 cities originally included in the index, reflecting the end of pandemic restrictions in many cities and improvements to health care and education. A shift back toward normality after the COVID-19 pandemic have been the biggest drivers of changes.
This year, Vancouver recorded a total ranking of 97.3 out of 100 based on scores of 95 for stability, 100 for both health care and education, 97.2 for culture and environment and 96.4 for infrastructure. Calgary and Toronto scored 96.8 and 96.5, respectively. Calgary posted perfect scores in stability, health care, education and infrastructure but was pulled down by a culture and environment score of 86.7. Toronto also recorded 100 points across the board in stability, health care and education, along with 94.4 in culture and environment. But an infrastructure score of 89.3 reduced its ranking.
The three cities all scored higher in stability this year than they did in 2022.
Here is the full list of the top 10 cities:
1. Vienna, Austria
2. Copenhagen, Denmark
3. Melbourne, Australia
4. Sydney, Australia
5. Vancouver, Canada
6. Zurich, Switzerland
7. Calgary, Canada
8. Geneva, Switzerland
9. Toronto, Canada
10. Osaka, Japan; and Auckland, New Zealand
