CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Vienna has been named the world's most livable city for the third year running, and Western Europe has retained its position as the most livable region in the world.
The results of the Economist Intelligence Unit's latest annual Global Livability Index was published Thursday.
The index ranks the livability of 173 cities across five key categories, including stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. This year's survey saw a rise in average scores, says EIU, the research and analysis division of the Economist Group.
The improvement in the livability criterion is driven by gains in healthcare and education across developing countries, although this has been largely offset by declines in scores for several top-tier cities.
Western Europe has retained its position as the most livable region in the world, with Copenhagen, Zurich and Geneva once again making it to the top ten.
The 30 western European cities in this year's ranking reported an impressive average score of 92 out of 100. However, the region has seen the biggest fall in score, owing to a deterioration in the stability category, which was also the biggest declining factor in all five categories in the index globally.
Four Asia-Pacific cities - Melbourne, Sydney, Osaka and Auckland are among this year's top ten most livable cities in the world.
Israel's conflict with Hamas has led to Tel Aviv being the biggest faller down the ranks, dropping by 20 places to the 112th place. While the war has dealt a blow to the Middle East region's stability scores, strong gains in education and healthcare in many of the Gulf countries have pushed up the region's overall livability. The biggest gains were registered by the cities in the UAE - Abu Dhabi, Dubai - and Saudi Arabia - Riyadh, Jeddah and Al Khobar.
Algerian capital Algiers, Libyan capital Tripoli and Syrian capital Damascus are ranked as the least livable cities.
An acute housing crisis has pulled down infrastructure scores for Canada.
Meanwhile, the largest U.S. cities, notably Los Angeles and New York, are ranked 58th and 70th respectively in the list. However, all 25 of the North American cities in the index continue to attain the highest tier of livability. The region boasts a world-leading average education score and compares favorably with western Europe in terms of infrastructure and culture.
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