City quality of life indices

The world's most livable citys is an informal name given to any list of cities as they rank on a reputable annual survey of living conditions. Three examples are the Economist Intelligence Unit's "Liveability Ranking and Overview", "Mercer Quality of Living Survey", and Monocle's "Most Livable Cities Index". Liveability rankings are designed for use by employers assigning hardship allowances as part of job relocation. There have been numerous arguments over the expansion of livability rankings for other purposes. However, the annual city rankings attract extensive media coverage, and are a popular topic of discussion.

The EIU's Livability Ranking and Overview

The EIU's Liveability Ranking and Overview August 2013
	City	Country	Overall Rating
1	Melbourne	Australia	97.5
2	Vienna	Austria	97.4
3	Vancouver	Canada	97.3
4	Toronto	Canada	97.2
5	Adelaide	Australia	96.6
6	Calgary	Canada	96.6
7	Sydney	Australia	96.1
8	Helsinki	Finland	96.0
9	Perth	Australia	95.9
10	Auckland	New Zealand	95.7

Melbourne, Australia was ranked by the Economist Intelligence Unit as the World's most livable city since 2011.

The Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) most recent liveability ranking shows cities in Australia, Canada, Austria, Finland and New Zealand as the ideal destinations, thanks to a widespread availability of goods and services, low personal risk, and an effective infrastructure. It does not take into account the cost of living as a factor in 'liveability.' The Economist Intelligence Unit has been criticised by the New York Times for being overly anglocentric, stating that "The Economist clearly equates livability with speaking English."

The August 2013 report placed Melbourne, Australia as the most liveable city in the world, with Vienna, Austria taking second place, followed by Vancouver, Canada. Other Australian cities also ranked highly in the survey, with Adelaide continuing to hold equal 5th position (in company with Calgary in Canada). Sydney was at 7th position and Perth at 9th. A third Canadian city, Toronto was among the top ten, holding the 4th spot. Toronto is the largest city by population among the top ten cities, with nearly six million inhabitants within its metropolitan area. The Top 10 ranking order remains unchanged compared with 2012. The US city at highest place in ranking is Honolulu at 26. At the bottom end of the scale, the 2013 report lists Damascus (Syria) as worst, followed by Tehran (Iran), Douala (Cameroon), Tripoli (Libya), Karachi (Pakistan), Algiers (Algeria), Harare (Zimbabwe), Lagos (Nigeria), Port Moresby (PNG) and Dhaka (Bangladesh)

Mercer Quality of Living Survey

Mercer 2012 Quality of Living Survey
	City	Country
1	Vienna	Austria
2	Zurich	Switzerland
3	Auckland	New Zealand
4	Munich	Germany
5	Vancouver	Canada
6	Düsseldorf	Germany
7	Frankfurt	Germany
8	Geneva	Switzerland
9	Copenhagen	Denmark
10	Bern	Switzerland
	Sydney	Australia

Vienna, Austria

Main article: Mercer Quality of Living Survey

American global human resource and related financial services consulting firm Mercer releases annually the Quality of Living Survey, comparing 221 cities based on 39 criteria. New York is given a baseline score of 100 and other cities are rated in comparison. Important criteria are safety, education, hygiene, health care, culture, environment, recreation, political-economic stability and public transportation.

In the 2012 list, US cities at top positions are Honululu at 28 and San Francisco at 29.

The list helps multi-national companies decide where to open offices or plants, and how much to pay employees.

Monocle's Most Livable Cities Index

Monocle's Quality of Life Survey 2013
	City	Country
1	Copenhagen	Denmark
2	Melbourne	Australia
3	Helsinki	Finland
4	Tokyo	Japan
5	Vienna	Austria
6	Zurich	Switzerland
7	Stockholm	Sweden
8	Munich	Germany
9	Sydney	Australia
10	Auckland	New Zealand

Copenhagen, Denmark

Since 2007, the lifestyle magazine Monocle has published an annual list of livable cities. The list in 2009 was named "The Most Livable Cities Index" and presented 25 top locations for quality of life.

Important criteria in this survey are safety/crime, international connectivity, climate/sunshine, quality of architecture, public transportation, tolerance, environmental issues and access to nature, urban design, business conditions, pro-active policy developments and medical care.

The 2013 rankings continued thus: Hong Kong (11), Fukuoka (12), Kyoto (13), Paris (14), Singapore (15), Hamburg (16), Honolulu (17), Madrid (18), Vancouver (19), Berlin (20), Barcelona (21), Amsterdam (22), Portland (23), San Francisco (24) and Düsseldorf (25).

See also

• Global Liveability Survey
• List of cities by quality of living
• List of most expensive cities for expatriate employees
• EU Green Capitals