For the second year in a row, Vienna, Austria has been ranked the most liveable city in the world, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
The EIU said that among the cities that have registered improvements to their overall liveability rankings over the past five years, four cities stand out: Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire, Hanoi in Vietnam, Kiev in Ukraine and Belgrade in Serbia have seen increases of five percentage points or more.
Last year, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City were among the cities that gained strongly. Hanoi placed 107th with a score of 30.7 while Ho Chi Minh City placed 116th with a score of 57.1.
Each year, the EIU's index ranks 140 cities on a scale of 1-100. A city’s liveability is determined by a range of factors, including living standards, crime, transport infrastructure, access to education and healthcare, as well as political and economic stability.
The Austrian capital scored 99.1 points thanks to its convenient public transport and varied cultural life. Therefore, Vienna continues to maintain its ranking as the world's most liveable city for second year in a row. Melbourne, Australia named world's second most liveable city and Sydney, Australia placed third.
The other top-ranked cities are split between Japan (Osaka in fourth) and Canada (Calgary in fifth). The EIU stated Western Europe and North America continue to be the most liveable regions in the world. Europe is home to eight of the EIU's 20 most liveable cities. However, the French capital Paris dropped to 25th, following the anti-government "yellow vest" protests.
For the first time, EIU noted the effects of climate change on liveability, with New Delhi, India and Cairo, Egypt plunging in the rankings to 118th and 125th place respectively due to poor air quality, undesirable average temperatures and inadequate water provision.
London and New York rank 48th and 58th respectively as they continue to struggle under the perceptions of the risk of crime and terrorism and overstretched infrastructure.
The least liveable cities were Karachi in Pakistan, Tripoli in Libya, Lagos in Nigeria and at the very bottom, Damascus in Syria./.
