Melbourne Has Been Named Australia’s Most Liveable City

It may have endured 246 days of cumulative stay-at-home orders in 2021, but that hasn’t stopped the judges at the Economist from recognising Melbourne as Australia’s most livable city in its Global Liveability Index report.

Melbourne came 10th in the report, tying with Japan’s Osaka, and the top spot was taken out by Austrian capital Vienna.

Last year, Adelaide ranked the third best city to live in in the world, but only 12 months later it’s dropped all the way to 30th place.

Australia’s largest city didn’t get a mention in the report’s summary, but Sydney ranked at 13, only two spots down from last year’s placement.

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) assessed more than 170 cities across categories such as stability, health care, culture, environment, education and infrastructure. The EIU commented that Australian cities fell down the rankings due to the impact of Covid-19 restrictions.

“In Australia, some states were slower to lift restrictions than others. As a result, Perth and Adelaide have lost ground since last year,” stated the report. Perth came in at 32 and Brisbane dropped 17 spots to 27th best city to set up home in the world.

So what made the Victorian city rank highest in the country? Melbourne’s education and infrastructure were named as the reason, but it ranked well behind other cities in the top 10 when it came to health care.

Here are the top 10 most livable cities according to the 2022 Global Liveability Index:
Vienna
Copenhagen
Zurich
Calgary
Vancouver
Geneva
Frankfurt
Toronto
Amsterdam
Osaka and Melbourne