More than half of the world’s population today lives in cities, with the numbers expected to rise. This trend makes measuring and improving liveability in cities essential.
But what makes a city liveable? Generally speaking, liveability can be assessed by quality-of-life factors like access to fresh water, food, housing, transport, health care, education, and a safe and stable built and natural environment.
A liveable city is also inclusive, encouraging mutual trust and diversity and providing adequate green spaces to help mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Numerous surveys quantify and rank cities’ liveability, including the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) annual Global Liveability Ranking. The index is a yearly assessment of 173 global cities (previously 140) for their urban quality of life, based on five categories: stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.
Ranking cities’ liveability shows what country has the best or worst living conditions.
The EIU 2023 report, the latest one as of writing this blog post, lists their top 10 cities.
- Vienna holds the top spot, followed by
- Copenhagen,
- Melbourne,
- Sydney,
- Vancouver,
- Zurich,
- Calgary,
- Geneva,
- Toronto,
- Osaka, and Auckland – both Japan and New Zealand cities tied for the tenth spot.
In 2022, 2019, and 2018, Vienna is also the best liveable city in the world.
In 2021, Auckland and Wellington, two New Zealand cities, landed the top and fourth spots, respectively.
The following year, 2022, both cities, Auckland and Wellington, spiraled to the 33rd and 46th, respectively, only to climb back to the 10th place, with Auckland sharing the spot with Osaka, Japan, and 23rd place for Wellington in the 2023 report.
Melbourne, Australia, ranked the world’s most liveable city from 2011 to 2017 for seven consecutive years.
Before 2011, the Canadian city of Vancouver was the number one spot from 2002 to 2011.
Dominating the top 10 list due to the widespread accessibility of goods and services, effective infrastructure, and low personal risk are typical cities from Australia, Canada, western Europe, and New Zealand.
Every annual report contains how the liveability score is calculated using five categories – stability, healthcare, culture & environment, education, and infrastructure. Each is given a weighted percentage of the total score and is rated using several indicators.
For these, EIU asks a combination of in-house experts and field correspondents from each city to complete a standardized questionnaire. They assign a rating to each indicator based on a city’s relative performance using external data sources or hard data such as average temperatures, healthcare, and public education ratings.
Below are the categories with their weighted percentage and the indicators used to assess them.
- Stability (25%). Indicators: the prevalence of petty crime and violent crime, terror threats, military conflict, and civil unrest or conflict.
- Healthcare (20%). Indicators: quality and availability of private healthcare, public healthcare, and availability of over-the-counter drugs, and general healthcare indicators adapted from the World Bank.
- Culture and environment (25%). Indicators: humidity/temperature rating, the discomfort of climate to travellers, level of corruption, social or religious restrictions, level of censorship, sporting and cultural availability, food & drink, and consumer goods & services.
- Education (10%). Indicators: availability and quality of private education and public education indicators.
- Infrastructure (20%). Indicators: quality of road network, public transport, international links, availability of good quality housing, quality of energy and water provision, and quality of telecommunications.
A liveable city or an urban area that offers many quality-of-life factors attracts migrants.
According to a WEF report, which discusses the cause and impacts of migration to a destination city, the push factors or reasons why people move to another location include economic factors such as unemployment and poverty, sociopolitical factors such as political instability, safety and security concerns, conflicts, and environmental factors like climate change, crop failure, and food scarcity.
The pull factors that make people want to move to a certain city or country include job opportunities, better education, family reunification, food security, freedom, abundant natural resources, and a favorable climate – qualities a liveable city possesses or that migrants perceive these cities offer.
Pew Research Center shows that the number of international migrants reached 281 million in 2020, meaning that 3.6% of the world’s population lives outside of the country of their birth. So where do these migrants go?
The article notes that a great majority of these migrants go to three regions: Europe 86.7 million, Asia 85.6m, and Northern America 58.7m.
Regarding the percentage of international migrants in a region’s population, in 2020, in Oceania countries, which include Australia, New Zealand, and various Pacific Islands, international migrants comprised 21.4% of their population. Northern American region only follows Oceania, with migrants making up 15.6% of the population. This means that these cities have a significant percentage of foreign-born residents in their population, which has an implication on the cities’ policies in terms of how they assist and encourage the integration and inclusion of migrants into society.
However, when it comes to the number of international migrants per country, the United States led by a wide margin, with nearly 51 million migrants in 202. It is then followed by Germany (15.5m), Saudi Arabia (13.5m), Russia (11.5), UK (9.4m), UAE (8.7m), France (8.5m), Canada (8m), Australia (7.7m), and Spain (6.8m).
The top five sources of these migrants come from India (17.9m), Mexico (11.2m), Russia (10.8m), China (10.5m), and Syria (8.5m).
According to WEF, migration can positively and negatively impact the destination countries. Positive impacts include the provision of cheap and surplus labor, closing skills gaps, creating a multi-ethnic society and increasing tolerance, and new sources from the country of origin.
However, an influx of migrants to a host country can increase remittances, leading to unemployment in case local consumption decreases. Other adverse impacts of migration can include cultural dilution, marginalization, and xenophobia. Increases in population due to migration could also stress urban services and social infrastructure.
The influx of migrations creates a need and challenge to expand and invest in utilities, services, and infrastructure as energy, water, housing, and social services like education and healthcare demands increase.
It is also vital that migrants integrate into society, and cities can facilitate this by including and involving migrants in local development planning to enhance migrants’ sense of belonging and increase their capacity as development actors.
Doing the opposite, such as segregating migrants, could lead to social segregation and mutual distrust, feeding xenophobic behaviors, the report says.
City liveability and migration attraction to the city can be key indicators of potential development.
Analysis of and planning for growth is one of the core components of long-term infrastructure management planning, indicating where new or updated infrastructure will be needed over time.
Sources:
The world’s most liveable cities in 2023. (2023, June 21). The Economist. Retrieved from https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/06/21/the-worlds-most-liveable-cities-in-2023
The Global Liveability Index 2023. Optimism amid instability. EUI. Retrieved https://pages.eiu.com/rs/753-RIQ-438/images/Jun-Global-Liveability-Index-2023.pdf
Lissandrello, C. & Bruyere, S. (2022 August, 22). What makes a city liveable? Ramboll. Retrieved from https://www.ramboll.com/en-apac/lets-close-the-gap/what-makes-a-city-liveable
Migration and Its Impact on Cities – An Insight Report. (2017 October). World Economic Forum. Retrieved from https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Migration_Report_Embargov.pdf
Natarajan, A., Moslimani, M., & Lopez, M. (2022, December 16). Key facts about recent trends in global migration. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/12/16/key-facts-about-recent-trends-in-global-migration/
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