Melbourne has edged out arch rival Sydney in the annual global livability survey by The Economist magazine’s Economist Intelligence Unit.
Melbourne came in 3rd with Sydney 5th in the livability index. Amazingly Australia holds four of the top ten places with Adelaide and Perth sharing 8th spot on the ladder. The survey ranked 140 global cities on 30 criteria covering stability, healthcare, culture, environment, education and infrastructure.
Canada comes close to Australia’s haul, with three of the top ten cities in the survey and Vancouver holding top spot. Australia’s neighbour New Zealand also gets a mention with Auckland taking hold of 10th position.
THE TOP TEN
1. Vancouver (Canada)
2. Vienna (Austria)
3. Melbourne (Australia)
4. Toronto (Canada)
5. Calgary (Canada)
6. Helsinki (Finland)
7. Sydney (Australia)
=8. Perth (Australia)
=8. Adelaide (Australia)
10. Auckland (New Zealand)
THE BOTTOM TEN
140. Harare (Zimbabwe)
=138. Dhaka (Bangladesh)
=138. Algiers (Algeria)
137. Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea)
136. Lagos (Nigeria)
135. Karachi (Pakistan)
134. Doulala (Cameroon)
133. Kathmandu (Nepal)
132. Colombo (Sri Lanka)
=130. Dakar (Senegal)
=130. Tehran (Iran)
The SMH highlighted the poor scores in the Economic Intelligence Unit survey of cities hosting upcoming sporting events. Johannesburg, home of the 2010 soccer World Cup, ranked just equal 92nd with a score of 69.1 – the same as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the main hosts for the 2014 World Cup.
New Delhi, host of this year’s Commonwealth Games, ranked 113th with a score of 58.6. It was the best of the cities that will host the 2011 cricket World Cup, with Mumbai 117th, Colombo 132nd and Dhaka equal 138th.
Dynamic Business Magazine’s editor Jen Bishop sparked some heated debate on this topic last year with her blog post asking, “Sydney vs Melbourne. Which is better?”, the numbers are in and if this survey is to be believed, the answer isn’t Sydney.
