Ranked: 20 Best Cities To Live In The World, According To A New Report

Looking for the best cities to live in the world? Every year, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) ranks the best places to live in the Global Liveability Index 2023.

This year, the Index covers 172 cities, with rankings based on a number of categories, including stability, healthcare, culture, education and infrastructure.

The Winners: The Best Cities to Live in the World

For the second year in a row, Vienna, Austria, has been named the best city to live in the world. The authors of the report called Vienna out for its “unsurpassed combination of stability, good infrastructure, strong education and healthcare services, and plenty of culture and entertainment.” There are few downsides to living in Vienna, but a lack of major sporting events is one of them.

Another high performer, Copenhagen, comes in next on the list for the second year in a row, thanks to many of the same attributes that Vienna has: stability, infrastructure, culture and more.

This year, Melbourne and Sydney, Australia, took the third and fourth spots. “The Australian cities, which bounced up and down the rankings during the pandemic, are now in third and fourth place. They have seen their scores in the healthcare category improve since last year, when they were still affected by Covid waves that stressed their healthcare systems,” wrote the authors of the report.

The rest of the top 10 included three Canadian cities (Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto), two Swiss cities (Zurich, Geneva) and one Japanese city (Osaka).

The Best Cities to Live in the U.S.

What about the United States? This year, the U.S. didn’t crack the list of 20 best cities to live, and two U.S. cities—Los Angeles and San Diego—are among the places making the biggest declines. Both cities dropped 17 points on the list from last year. “These cities have not seen a particularly sharp decline in their index scores, but they have failed to make the gains that many other cities—particularly those in Asia—have made in the past year. As a result, they have been overtaken in the rankings,” said the authors of report.

The best city to live in the U.S. is Honolulu (which comes in at number 25 on the overall list). “Honolulu scores well in all categories,” says Upasana Dutt, head of The Global Liveability Index at EIU. “It scores particularly well in the educational facilities that it offers. It scores strongly on stability as compared to other U.S. cities. Where it scores marginally lower is in its culture and environment accessibility.”

Rounding out the top five best places to live in the U.S.: Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Seattle and Washington D.C.

Notably, these are all mid-size cities. “None of the U.S cities that score the highest in the country are very large in terms of population size,” says Dutt. “We typically see mid-sized cities in wealthier economies perform better in our survey.”

The Biggest Changes

Making some of the biggest changes this year: the cities in Asia-Pacific. Eight of the top 10 cities to move up in the rankings are in the region, including Wellington, New Zealand (up 35 places to 23rd place), Auckland, New Zealand (up 25 to the number 10 spot) and Hanoi, Vietnam (up 20 spots to the number 129 spot). The reason: a shift towards normalcy after the pandemic.

Despite the fact that four of the top 10 cities are in Europe, western European cities suffered in the 2023 survey. The problem: a rise in workers’ strikes and civil unrest, which hurt their stability ratings. Another impact: They have failed to match gains made by cities in Asia and the Middle East.

Read on for the ranking of the best cities to live around the world and in the U.S.

Ranked: The 2o Best Cities to Live in the World

1. Vienna, Austria
2. Copenhagen, Denmark
3. Melbourne, Australia
4. Sydney, Australia
5. Vancouver, Canada
6. Zurich, Switzerland
7. Calgary, Canada
8. Geneva, Switzerland
9. Toronto, Canada
10. Osaka, Japan
11. Auckland, New Zealand
12. Adelaide, Australia
13. Perth, Australia
14. Helsinki, Finland
15. Tokyo, Japan
16. Brisbane, Australia
17. Frankfurt, Germany
18. Berlin, Germany
19. Luxembourg
20. Amsterdam, Netherlands

Ranked: The 1o Best Cities to Live in the U.S.

1. Honolulu (overall ranking: 25)
2. Atlanta (overall ranking: 33)
3. Pittsburgh (overall ranking: 34)
4. Seattle (overall ranking: 36)
5. Washington, D.C. (overall ranking: 38)
6. Miami (overall ranking: tied for 39)
7. Chicago (overall ranking: tied for 39)
8. Boston (overall ranking: 46)
9. Portland, Oregon (overall ranking: 48)
10. San Francisco (overall ranking: 49)

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