The World's 10 Most “Livable” Cities: Surprises and Controversies
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- čas přidán 1. 07. 2023
- Each year, a ranking of the world’s ten most livable cities inspires a combination of pride from people who live in those cities and confusion about how exactly those cities were deemed to be the best. The 2023 ranking recently came out and, as usual, European, Canadian, and Australian cities topped the list.
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This video convinced me that we need a “Oh The Urbanity” index of most livable towns 😊
Can we plot the data along a 5 point spectrum graph to compare too? :D
That channels called city nerd :)
And then they can charge the economist 10k for their data
Yes, make it happen! Start a travel budget Patron and I'll promise to chip in!
They did do a top 10 urbanist cities in North America video
To be fair, I think Vienna definitely deserves a top spot. It has very good urbanism, great culture, low crime, while at the same time being incredibly affordible compared to other cities in the western world.
Vienna is very expensive compared to central Europe...
It has nice architecture too.
@@stevemcgowen Yes but it's more comparable to Western Europe - despite being east of Prague. In Western European terms rent in Vienna is dirt cheap. Also crime is very low compared to Western European capitals, and it's much cleaner and quieter.
@@stevemcgowen Let's ignore for a second that Vienna is actually in Central Europe as well, Bratislava for example has become more less as expensive, even though salaries are still not quite where they are in Vienna yet. And I think that is the point. If you calculate with local salaries cities like Prague, Krakow or Warsaw are probably not more affordable places than Vienna.
That said, as someone from Vienna I would agree to the makers of this video. That ranking might be good for its target group, it certainly is not suitable to judge liveability of cities for common people. Yes, Vienna has a lot going for it but is it really No1 in the entire world? That would be a bit much too claim.
How about walkability?
I've always disliked "city ranking" articles that major news organizations and websites like Bloomberg, Forbes, WSJ, etc. routinely publish.
They always seem so out of touch with everyday ordinary people and their experiences, and absolutely NEVER include the perspectives of experts, urban planners, urbanists, much less CZcams urbanists, or even people who even live in those cities. Not to mention, they're almost always written from the perspective of transit-hostile, or transit-unfamiliar people who drive or are driven everywhere.
Transit hostile WTF are you talking about, urbanist or should I said cyclists channel that hostile to transit.... Even amsterdam residents bealive public transport hindering their bike infrastructure..
Even the reality are they fail to reduce car dependancy which they have 588 per 100 people compare to public transport oriented city/country like Singapore and Hong Kong...
@@anubizz3where are you getting at brozzer
"Much less CZcams urbanists"? Most of those are just "cars bad, bikes/trains good"... they have absolutely no qualifications to rank cities in all their different components. As faulty as these rankings are, if left to some of those CZcams "urbanists" the cities would be ranked by total length of bike lanes. This channel rises a bit above that as does City Beautiful.
@@anubizz3i live in singapore and there’s stroads everywhere
@@soundscape26 but cars are bad
In other words, this report is not for the average person and should almost mean nothing to the average person unless you work for these big companies.
Wrong. This ranking is manipulated for marketing purposes but the conclusions have no meaning to anyone.
Companies use it just to justify their work, but they don't need to do any of this.
This also do it for salary bands every year but it is just useless work that could be done every 2 or 3 years and lead to the same results.
But this city wage is high for the cost of living. I live in Sydney working in the factory with no qualifications and still have money to travel to Europe every year.
@@mikatu This kind of number aggregation with randomly assigned weights has a very limited utility ceiling: my mom could come up with an equally good list. Plus the need to categorize criteria actually makes this kind of thing worse than random guesses, because you always end up missing something. For example, the kind of professional this list is built only knows English, so Vienna (where most, but not all people are fluent in English, and where at least some administrative hurdles will be harder in English) will inevitably be less livable than Vancouver for them. That's apart from factors like nightlife, climate, etc... which also will be far more important to most young professionals than whether the place has the best hospitals around or just good ones.
Hello, I live in Watertown, MA, a suburb of Boston. I wanted to tell you about the abhorrent transit situation that the nearby city of Lynn has found itself in. The city has been building more densely around its commuter rail station, however, the MBTA has closed the station due to the disrepair of the building, even though it was built in 1991. A new station will not be done until 2030, which is absolutely ridiculous.
The city has urged the MBTA to build a temporary platform, which will take 12-18 months. Otherwise, they have to take a shuttle bus to Swampscot for the commuter rail or a shuttle to Revere for the Blue Line, which will take a long amount of time during rush hour. It's ridiculous that Lynn, which is the same distance to Boston and Brooklyn is to Manhattan, has no accessible transit to get to Boston. This is compounded by the fact of the large Latino and Black population in Lynn. This has also caused economic problems as building contractors to have densified around the station will suffer since young commuters will not move in without transit. This has led to a grocery store cancelling its plan to move into one of the buildings. I wanted to spread the news about this. If you want to see the full article, it's in the June 25th Boston Globe written by Joan Vennochi.
Hey, I'm sorry, but I do not understand what the latino and black people have to do here. Please explain
@@aneyelesspig8899 Lynn has a large latino and black population, but has been screwed over when it comes to infrastructure. it forces those who my not have a car, but work in the Boston area to go through a prolonged commute, that's not good. as well as new businesses and development not coming to downtown Lynn, do to lack of access.
The MBTA is a joke. And the fact that Boston has one of the best public transportation systems in the US is even worse..
@@TheOnyxGemini thanks
I'm Austrian and I our capital city is cheap compared to our avg salaries. It's safe, clean, and beautiful.
really? I google it and median house value to annual wage is like ~20 (means house worth 20yr wage). That is quite expansive. US is
Yes the system with public housing seems to work pretty well to keep rents at a relatively affordable rate, even if owning is not an option for most people. Also public transportation and walkability is great, I go there regularly and never have any issues getting around without a car. And even if you are not a wealthy expat, the social security in this country is really good, I don't think a lot of countries offer more. Not sure if Vienna is really the most liveable city but it certainly is a very liveable city.
@@Danji_Coppersmoke yeah but we usually don't live alone, so more than 1 wage can help boost that period to
@@j.a.1721 agree 100%! I myself wouldn't like to live in Vienna cause I don't feel safe there sometimes (as a goodlooking girl, you get attention from the wrong guys - I feel much safer in Budapest, Prague, Bratislava, Kopenhagen, or Belgrade), but otherwise it checks loads of points.
@@Danji_Coppersmoke owning is not as common here. From what I have heard after the second world war a lot of focus was on building housing relatively cheap and fast, so there was more focus on apartment buildings. And now the rental market is pretty good, with the city owning a lot of properties, so social housing is not just for poor people, but also middle class people. The quality of those rentals is also pretty good, I have heard that is not necessarily the case in the US. And there are legal protections for renter etc. So it is difficult to compare the housing markets like that because there are so many factors.
I knew people would shit on Calgary. I've lived in both Montreal and Calgary is clear:) It's not only about cool urbanities, food trucks and bike lanes (and Calgary has a worldclass bike system). Calgary built an inclusive city, where families can thrive, young people afford a house and old people retire in peace with a nice view on the mountains :D
Calgary is plain and boringg
what are you talking about. as someone who's also spend many years in both, i can tell you that calgary is not at all what you're saying. a house with a mountain view is nearly 1mil these days. calgary has one of the worst transit systems in canada that intensifies the already awful exclusivity produced by the sprawl. and how are you going to say calgary has a worldclass bike system when literally you need to take a 4lane 70km/h road to go anywhere. not to mention that the city is filled with literal alt-right separtists and depraved oil and gas tycoons.
@@idk-xj6wvToronto and Vancouver are even more boring, you can't do anything because it costs too much.
@@Peglegkickboxer lmao what. youve obviously never been to both, the parks are free, museums and stuff are not much, tf are you
@@kaito-fukasejam8387 lived in Vancouver for half a decade before I moved to YYC then to Gdansk. The parks get old quick, food and going out is very expensive especially with how you lose your extra cash to the high rent and fuel prices. The sea wall is terribly boring, it's just an empty footpath. Go to Europe and even Halifax to see how fun a sea wall is, stores, restaurants, activity centers everywhere, the whole city goes out there. YYC also has tons of hiking since the mountains are like 40 minutes away, lots of restaurants, and you get way more spare cash to spend after rent.
Back in the early 1990s (pre-Web) there was a paper book, Places Rated Almanac. It covered 350+ metro areas in the USA, and rated them on various livability factors. My then-husband and I found it very useful, but not complete.
For example, they scored highest the areas with very even, moderate climates - if I remember, San Francisco was #1 for climate. I prefer a 4 season climate and cold, snowy winters - I prefer Minneapolis weather to San Francisco! We also had other criteria that was not in the book (New York Times delivery, a good traditional bagel store).
In the long run, it's good that there's no ONE best city ... or it would be overrun with everyone trying to move there.
Thank you so much for decoding this perplexing livability index. This explains so much. 😊👍
This was extremely informative, thank you!
Great video! Very interesting to see how the agenda of the company making this list shpaes its outcomes, not something I would've thought of myself.
Thank you for explaining what’s behind the Economist’s liveable cities ranking. Every year a Canadian magazine publishes a “Best Cities for …” list. I’ve usually disagreed with their choice and have lived in a city that made the list one year. I hated the place. When I looked into some of the criteria they used to come up with the scores it was things like household income and the number of new cars owned in the city.
Nonsense... Magazine studies do not count.
@@stever2583 They do to some people making decisions about where to live or invest. I’m not 100% certain but I think the magazine was Moneysense. Or it may have been McLeans.
These surveys aren’t that useful if they aren’t based on what’s important to you. When I was looking for a place to move to I did my own research, narrowed it down to five places based on my own criteria - number of universities, public transit, train service to other cities, green space - and used that to create a decision matrix. Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa came out on top. Vancouver was number one for green space, Montreal for universities and train service. Ottawa lost points for rapid transit because it didn’t exist back then. I’d probably expand the criteria if I was to do it again.
What city was that place?
@@BDee3126 Abbotsford, B.C. Some of the smaller villages around it like Matsqui Village and Clayburn were nice though.
I’ve also visited one in Quebec, Brossard just south of Montreal, that made the list a few years back that doesn’t impress me. Its major mall is mostly parking lot. There’s a whole subdivision of monstrous identical houses pretending to be mansions in one part of town. You can’t walk to the store or take shortcuts because of dead end crescents and many streets don’t have sidewalks. It made the list because incomes were high there that year. It’s suburban hell.
@@polishtheday Clayburn has a history, however, with historic buildings. Don't know if I could say that about Abbotsford.
Comprehensive breakdown and analysis; ty.
Cities need to do more to encourage people to ride bicycles. Safe protected bike lanes and trails are needed so adults and children can ride safely. Speak up for bicycles in your community. Bicycles make life and cities better. Ask your local transportation planner and elected officials to support more protected bike lanes and trails. Children should be riding a bicycle to school and not be driven in a minivan.
I live in Warsaw and they put in a lot of bike lanes just 4 years ago and immediately the ridership exponentially increased. We have bike traffic jams now. It doesn’t take much to convince people not to drive.
Public transport..... You want kids have complete safe environments to ride a bike? Go to bike riding park.. 😂
@@anubizz3public transit and bike infrastructure work in tandem. And no you should be able to bike in a city, it’s much more efficient and practical for many trips. You can still drive when you need to however.
@@jph2k23 Public transport and bike never worked in tandom..... How many bike you could being in train, trams and bus? Wait you say free parking in both in the start and in the end of public transport route? Isn't it defeat the purpose of removing car parking? How about city that master the public transport like Singapore and Hong Kong? How much car their citizens have hmm 144 and 108 per 1000.. Lets see how much bike utopian country 58............? Oh shit it's 588....
Great city with public transport do not need dedicated bikeline because people can just bloddy walk...
@@anubizz3aaaand we have another 0 knowledge comment🤣
Thanks for this!
I've always been curious as to what builds into that list is, and now I know
yeah spot on. there have been lots of stories of late of people who are now doing bedshare in sydney just to survive. Rents are so high that the are paying 50% of the room rent to share a bed. Usually one will be working during the day and the other has night job.
Governments need to crack down on land owners and do it hard and soon.
Bullshit! I live in Sydney working full-time in the factory with no qualifications and still have money to travel to Europe every year. Rent is expensive but the wage is high also. Unless you work in the restaurant with low rate cash maybe you be struggling.
Antwerp is featured HEAVILY in this one and I love it. Antwerp has been my favorite city I've ever visited.
Meh
3:49 I walked down this exact street! It was way busier than this and there were 2 Italian guys yelling at each other from across the street 😂
Excellent video. Who's the audience/what purpose is the ranking meant to serve is a really critical point, yet one I hadn't considered.
Been a good week between you, notjustikes, adam something, citybeautiful, and citynerd.
Y'all went to Antwerp huh? 😆 This is a very interesting video on a list that has always confused me. I love your objective content, keep it up guys!
I’m in Toronto this weekend for my first visit since 2007. I’m pretty impressed with the bike share here! The TTC has always been super easy and smooth, but the bikes (and bike lanes) add a whole new super fun option for getting around. It’s almost enough to make me want to live here again!
Montreal has the best subway and public transport and ranking in the world for biking , sustainability, , safe, canadian capital of culture , best food , best night life in Canada ... a copy of New York but safe and clean
@@jeanbolduc5818 montreal isnt a copy of new york at all lmao that is not a compliment
TTC being smooth and easy lol. I remember when I was 16 I just went on my first date with a girl and we were travelling back to her house on the TTC and I was stabbed graciously by a homeless gentleman.
@@jeanbolduc5818 Lmao no it doesn't, that goes to Copenhagen or Amsterdam. Montreal doesn't even come close, but it's decent for NA standards.
would love to see your guys own top 10
I like the Mercer Quality of Living index better--more factors were evaluated across more cities than in the EIU report. Unfortunately it ceased publication in 2019.
Singapore was the only Asian city to ever crack the top 30.
In my opinion, cost of living is part of quality of life. If every household around me needs to make € 100K to afford owning their home and a comfortable lifestyle, I find it reduces the social diversity of the place and only people in tech/law/banking/entrepreneurship can truly thrive in those places.
I prefer to live in a smaller community with much lower CoL where people in the arts can live.
Unless they work 12 hours a day or experience severe burn out because of stress at work
@@harrypotcha0283 Agreed 👍🏼
Most people in the arts prefer larger cities to reach larger audiences and make their work tenable
@@DefenestrateYourself Depends. I know comedians that live in medium sized cities and travel for gigs and graphic designers that live in big cities and have clients globally. Like everything in life, it depends ;)
Be it as it may… Vienna is one of my top 3 cities I’d love to live in (Amsterdam & Ghent vying for that same spot) and I have my favorites that pull me to each one, but I wouldn’t hesitate to move there if an opportunity arose.
"No offense to Calgary, but how is Montreal not the other Canadian city on the list" - I know that Calgary isn't exactly an urbanist's dream city, but these kind of dismissive comments from Ontarians are infuriating. Calgary has a lot to offer and punches well above it's weight on a ton of metrics. Yes it's car centric, but for a city that was mostly built after the 1950s, it's not horrible and has made a ton of "urbanist" planning decisions you just don't find in peer cities. I love Montreal and it deserves recognition for what it offers, but the incredulity that anyone could possibly prefer Calgary is irksome to say the list.
I can't believe you dismissively assumed that I'm from Ontario!
@@OhTheUrbanity Haha touché, but the rest of the point still stands. You didn't have to do Calgary dirty like that
Nice! City Nerd shout-out! Urbanists unite!
This was a very interesting revelation. Assessing the target of these ratings really explains the full picture.
For myself, as a software developer I can expect the highest salary by living in the Toronto area (within Canada). And there would be even higher salary options were I to move to the US. There are many other places in the world I would certainly enjoy living, but if I were to be paid outside of the US and Canada the salary expectations would be lower.
Now, some might say that the cost of living could be cheaper, but as highlighted in the previous video about housing in the Netherlands, we can see that it is comparable to housing in the Toronto area.
I grew up in Calgary and it’s fine but I’m always surprised when Calgary ranks so high on these lists…
I’m happy here in a smaller community on Vancouver Island, though.
Calgary looks great on paper and the people making this list haven't actually been to any of the cities. On paper it looks like a city without significant flaws; affordable, outdoorsy, not the most horrific weather. The reality is a dull, empty city with bizarrely fluctuating weather and no nature of any note until you drive 2 hours away.
@@kkjjqrysdgadff7782 - Agreed. For the most part, you could definitely have called it an "underrated" city compared to other Canadian cities, but it is a lifeless city. Sure, it is a 1.5 hour drive from the mountains, but in terms of "city life" it lacks. Public transit isn't great. Cycle and walkability is poor.
That's an interesting overview of the methodology behind those and what they are actually for. I have seen those lists at times in the past and always considered them to be a bit odd in some ways but never cared enough to actually look into it, just stopped reading and moved on.
I lived in 2 of the worlds 10 most livable cities.
Toronto and Greater Vancouver.
The lower mainland was the best place I’ve ever lived
I grew up in Burnaby. I loved living there.
God you gotta visit Europe someday. Toronto livable? I live hours from there and maybe 25 years ago but now there is so much violence there. Fights break out on the streets.
@@curiousnomadic I was talking about greater Vancouver
(aka the “lower mainland”)
being the best place I ever lived. Not Toronto!
The price tag is way too high though now. Amazing place, but housing and homelessness have ravaged its greatness.
The thing is when I see Toronto on a 'most livable city' list and not Montreal, it makes me question the entire list regardless of whether I watched this video or not lol
People from Montreal are dying of anger that Toronto is more developed, bigger, richer and more everything than Montreal
Its a list of "The most livable cities for highly paid expats".
Nothing to do with how it is for regular residents who make local salaries, use public transportation, public schools and public healthcare.
So basically the global livability index is basically meaningless
It's not. Would you prefer to live in one of the top 10 cities or one of the bottom 10?
@@soundscape26 I wouldn't live in any of the cities on this top 10 list...
@@stevemcgowen Picky. Unless you are more of the rural type in which case I understand.
@@soundscape26 No, I like cities, but wouldn't live in any of these. Prague is my #1- I have a flat in Prague I love the city and country so much. I also like Brno, Utrecht, Bratislava, Lviv, Wroclow, Florenc, Tallinn, Vilnius, Gdansk, Amsterdam... These would make my list of livable cities, vs any on the list...
@@stevemcgowen Ok, fair enough. Your criteria is your criteria.
Economist is an english language publication (also quite patriotic towards the UK in their reporting on the EU and its economy) - they always prioritize english language, thats why its predictably always 50% US/Canada/Australia in the list. So Paris and Montreal are out, not sure why Amsterdam is out though, they speak english just fine in the netherlands.
Paris would obviously never be near the top of the list.
Some people claim Amsterdam is not even the best city in the Netherlands, so...
Paris wouldn't be anywhere near regardless it's a fucking dump
@@mx2000 Paris isn't exactly peaceful with near constant riots. While it's probably not as dangerous as most cities in the United States, it's not a tranquil haven either.
@@soundscape26 - That would probably be The Hague. Amsterdam now too busy and overpriced, and has higher crime than the other cities (still low though).
There should be an urbanist (and/or solarpunk) focussed list. I wonder if that could be crowdsourced or something?
I have to say, as someone who moved to Calgary from Vancouver, and has visited or spent extended amounts of time in many of the other cities on this list, Calgary's position is actually fair. Some people think of it as not very green because they don't see as many trees, but that's because we're on the edge of a very dry prairie. There is actually a ton of public outdoors space all around. Same thing goes for other amenities like schools, restaurants, and healthcare. The city's transportation infrastructure is car dependent relative to other cities on the list but the neighbourhoods themselves almost always are more or less complete. Plus it's actually affordable to live here, as well as being safe and clean, which are things Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal are all backsliding on. I feel Calgary almost always gets discounted for some kind of qualitative bias that people aren't willing to acknowledge. Once you drop that you realize it's a lot more urbanist than you think.
Thanks for your input.
I am considering these two cities when moving back to Canada from Asia.
One might say cheap to live in Calgary... But it is in no way comparable to Toronto or Vancouver. There is no green other than the rather plain jane parks and attractions. Why not plant trees down boulevards, alongside sidewalks, any area that could use a bit of cooling and visual pleasantry. Because its Calgary... How long would the trees last? someone would chop them down for firewood, run them over in their pickup, pile the ice and snow on it in winter. I lived there for 3 years - longest three years of my life!
I was impressed by Calgary . But for me it lacks a " je ne sais quoi" . A big to young to have a real charm and indentity
I was born in BC near Vancouver and lived there until I was an adult, but I've lived most of my life since then back and forth between East Asia and Alberta. If I went back to Canada I could buy a nice townhouse in an urban/walkable area of Calgary and go on at least two large vacations a year - not for the same price as living in Vancouver. I have a fairly high salary, but anything in Vancouver would be financially unattainable without subjecting myself to grinding poverty after the cost of buying and I'd still likely have to commute. There are nice places there, but thanks, I'll just go out to visit.
If your money means more than quality of life - have at it... I live in North Vancouver - sure it's expensive but we have very few issues. Yes I could live almost anywhere in Canada for much less - but it would not be North Vancouver, Greater Vancouver, or British Columbia... That is worth much more than finances!
@@stever2583 Keeping being a slave with that mindset
@@TanNguyen-iv5yh At 72 years - I believe I've learned a thing or two. I have been to no other country with the exception of Denmark that delivers the quality of life that Canada does. Then its purely natural beauty and nature... Nature we still have - in spite of the immigrants who ignore the Law and try to steal it all regularly! Particularly the seafood!
@@stever2583my quality of life severely dropped in Vancouver. Yeah it's such a pretty city with nice weather and the most diverse food but I couldn't afford to go out much, I had to constantly grind and work as did everyone around me which made the city feel so empty, boring, and lonely.
@@Peglegkickboxer I'm sorry that your experience was not positive in Vancouver. It is a very expensive city ( even on the world stage) to live in, that we can all agree on. But , If one partook in the economic realities of life in a city, one could get on the roller coaster that is the property ladder and expand their reach to partake in the wonder that is the city of Vancouver. I grew up in North Vancouver, and I was fortunate that I chose a decent career when young to allow the purchase of a home in North Vancouver after saving for a few years. That is all it took! Yes I am fortunate, but most of my school friends all did quite well by staying in North Vancouver. We missed out on the big city issues of gangs, crime, poverty induced issues, and even the drug culture issues. I am sorry that many will read this and see me as privileged and spoiled. Not true... my parents had basic jobs barely above the average wage in Canada. I was fortunate in that my early career working for others allowed me to save and buy a home that inflation grew to ridiculous levels. I was not married, I had little furniture, I rented rooms to friends as they needed, and I renovated twice to increase the value of my home.
LOL, 6 Anglo-Saxon cities. "World" as in "World Series," I guess.
"Anglo-Saxon"? Have you ever even been to Canada or Australia?
I live in Toronto. It is a great city to explore the multicultural neighbourhoods. The summer is full of events; during winter, there are many opportunities to be socially active. I often travel to the US and am happy to get home to a city that is organized and cohesive (Good sidewalks, safe intersections, and no worries about wandering into the wrong areas). It’s expensive but worth it.
mUlTiCuLutRaL
Most people who live in Toronto like myself would agree the city is a mess. Out of control development with little planning for the future, declining infrastructure, terrible public transit, gridlock, ongoing gun violence, unaffordable housing and rents - the list goes on and on.. The events you refer to are mediocre at best. How could you be so unaware?
I see a lot of clips made in Antwerp. Is there going to be a video about this Belgian city?
From Sage AI:
The Economist's annual ranking of the 10 Most Livable Cities is based on a range of factors, including stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. However, if we were to give a higher weighting to housing affordability, the list of the most livable cities might look different.
Here are the top 10 most livable cities in the world when housing affordability is given a higher weighting:
1. Montreal, Canada
2. Melbourne, Australia
3. Helsinki, Finland
4. Vienna, Austria
5. Adelaide, Australia
6. Calgary, Canada
7. Auckland, New Zealand
8. Perth, Australia
9. Oslo, Norway
10. Zurich, Switzerland
These cities have been chosen based on their relatively high scores in the other categories that make up the livability index, as well as their relatively affordable housing markets. However, it's important to note that livability is a subjective concept, and what makes a city livable can vary greatly depending on individual preferences and needs.
From Claude+ AI
Here is my ranking of the top 10 most livable and affordable cities in the world:
1. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Very affordable cost of living, growing economy, tropical climate.
2. Taipei, Taiwan - Affordable, convenient public transit, universal healthcare, modern infrastructure.
3. Prague, Czech Republic - Cheap cost of living, charming cityscape, historical architecture, strong social welfare system.
4. Singapore - Low tax rates, low crime, prestigious education and healthcare systems despite affordability.
5. Tokyo, Japan - Low cost of living relative to other global cities, efficient infrastructure, cultural richness.
6. Barcelona, Spain - Great weather, coastal setting, strong public services and work-life balance at a reasonable cost of living.
7. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - Ultra-low costs of living and rent, historical charm, growing job market attracting ex-pats.
8. Bangkok, Thailand - Also an extremely affordable megacity with reasonably modern infrastructure and amenities.
9. Budapest, Hungary - Architectural beauty, natural scenery along the Danube, and Soviet-era public services available at very low costs.
10. Medellin, Colombia - Once notorious but now a safe, affordable city with innovative public transit, outdoor activities and nightlife.
This is my view based on weighing costs of living, basic infrastructure and amenities, safety, job opportunities, desirable climate, and other livability factors that would appeal to both locals and expatriates with a range of income levels. Please let me know if you would like me to clarify or modify my ranking and criteria in any way. I can also provide more details on each of these cities if needed.
One could also state that if housing prices are low... there might be some very real problems that are over looked. Perhaps a dying town, no prospects for decent wages, no infrastructure, Those issues can be be found globally. Towns either move with the times or stagnate. Cheap towns have, in almost all examples stagnated.
Baffling to see Auckland there, it's known to have a big housing shortage and crisis. But indeed that Top 10 would make more sense.
Here's the thing. I live in Toronto but have lived in NYC and Berlin. I am OK with a city being expensive as long as it gives something back. Toronto gives nothing back, it only takes. It has no character, it's ugly, boring, overcrowded and never ever takes a break to just relax. It is always growing in the wrong way. Too bad really, in the 80's it really was considered a world class city. To place this at #9 tells us of who lives there. If you come from a place that has one of the lowest standards of living in the world (African countries, India, China, Iran, Afghanistan etc...) then Toronto is heaven. But if you are over 50 and were born and raised here then you will hate what it has become.
You are free to leave
@@MartinNikolov01 Free to leave is the only thing free in this city, plans are made already for departure next year.
You sound kind of racist, to be honest.
I would love a list of best towns with only around 20000 people that can be lived in if the only income you have is US social security.
I've always wondered how they came up with the rankings. I live in #3 (Melbourne), have lived in #4 (Sydney) and spend part of the year in #2 (Copenhagen). I've also visited most of the rest on the list. If you're in Copenhagen in January, you'll be wondering about the rankings as well. Lots of good things to say about all of these cities but things aren't always so clear cut at street level as they are on paper.
Copenhagen native here… I can appreciate that people accustomed to warmer climates consider our winters rough. But to most Danes the dark months are a special time where cozy socialising indoors is especially prioritised… you could say the season presents a common struggle that unites us, strengthens our social ties overall. I honestly think this aspect of life contributes to the relative stability and egalitarian nature of Nordic societies… we’re annually reminded of our codependency. It may take more than a few months or even years living here to really appreciate that for what it is.
Copenhagen native here too. Love January. It's nice to have actual seasons and changing daylight, gives a sense of progression in life. Granted it's not for everyone, especially if you didn't grow up with it, but it's subjective. The city itself is what matters, and it's a fantastic place to live. So much freedom of choice here with how you want to live and how you go about your daily life. Haven't experienced this anywhere else.
@@Real_MisterSir It's not about being "accustomed to warmer climates" or "seasons", the real issues are:
-It's absolutely unexciting to spend time outdoors when it's cold and dark most of the year, unless you love covering yourself under 5-6 layers of clothing
-Spending time indoors socialising is great once in a while, not when you have to do it 4-5 months and become sedentary as a result
-More than the cold, the darkness and early sunsets is the most depressing element. I mean depressing in the literal sense, because lack of exposure to natural light is an actual cause of depression in areas like northern Europe.
@@pritapp788 it very much depends on lifestyle. There is no scientific credited study linking lack of exposure to sunlight as a higher cause of depression than the alternative.
Now there may be merit to it if you are not accustomed to the less exposure to sunlight in the winter months and suddenly have to live here for an extended period and your body isn't coping well, as in that case there is reason to hypothesize that any significant change to one's accustomed environment may carry the risk of causing a degree of depression regardless of what said cause may be.
And also just adding in here for general context, statistics such as "Denmark has highest quantity of anti-depressants sold in the world" is always misquoted and can't be used as evidence for such statement - since term of what an anti-depressant is, is not an international agreement. For example, common Vitamin D supplement is by some countries grouped with anti-depressants when statistically registered, even though on its own it has nothing to do with it, it's like any other vitamin supplement.
Since you have lived or spent lots of time in those 3 cities, can you see any difference in 'liveability' between them, especially Melbourne vs Sydney? (There's a lot of rivalry between those two cities.)
I live in East Village Calgary and find its great for being able to enjoy the out doors. The city is not with out its issues. The cities communities thrive off their relationship to the Bow and Elbow river, fish creek park, nose hill park and the Glenmore reservoir. For a city that is pretty sprawling there is a good chunk of green space. The public transit is ok, its not great and its technically improving so we will see how that works out in the future. I think what really attracts people to Calgary is its proximity to its natural surroundings. 2 hours from excellent winter and summer activities. With that comes the need for cars to transport yourself into the mountains. So it would make sense that Calgary never becomes a cycling, walkable paradise because people will always see a need for personal transportation. However the small communities that make up the city are creating their own ways to make their neighborhood's more walkable.
Calgary is such a 6/10 city. The dependence on car transportation makes it much worse than it could be. I don't hate it here, but I don't like it much either. The healthcare is definitely high quality and it's very nice to live near the Rockies but it feels like a real cultural dead zone and going from one part of the city is of little interest unless you're going to a specific park. I also always worry that the sprawling road network will swallow up all our tax money.
I will note that one reason I chose to live here is because it's a sizable city that isn't coastal. I used to live in Kobe but seeing the ocean slowly encroaching on the city thanks to climate change was one reason I decided to leave. It also helps that Calgary is very seismically stable, which is nice after having been through some major earthquakes. Now I'm sure we will get a horrific flooding of the Bow River some time soon but I don't think there's anywhere you can live that won't be hit hard by climate change.
Sorry, having spent a lot of time in Calgary I can promise you it's well below average for green spaces. Aside from the fact that there are only 3-4 months out of the year when the city isn't DEAD & brown, it's best parks would be below average parks in a lot of cities. It has Banff somewhat close, but as it's the only actual nice outdoors nearby, and one of the most popular parks in all of NA, good luck enjoying it peacefully. Calgary sucks.
@@kkjjqrysdgadff7782 Nose Hill, Fish Creek ? Huge parks with raw wildlife. The whole Bow River pathway. Calgary aint lacking in the green space department. The weather is another debate.
As someone who works in data points all day, you're spot on in questioning assumptions behind the data. These lists are generated with human input and of course have biases and assumptions about who the target audience is (and if you're someone paying for The Economist, you're probably more business-oriented than most). "All models are wrong, some are useful" is very applicable here. That doesn't mean these lists are useless though, you just have to ask yourself who is it actually for and if what you're looking for actually matches up to who the list is for. It would help to be a bit more explicit of course but at the same time, no one should base their decision 100% on a single list. It's just one input out of many.
Precisely. The Economist (clue’s in the name) knows a thing or two about data analysis and business and it knows it’s target market very well. Of course the assumptions of their “liveability” indices are biased in favour of the perspectives of the top 10% (or thereabouts) of earners in international business - those are the people that multinationals are sending to live in these cities.
That’s definitely true, but I would say that if the list would be called “the hardship bonus for companies relocating expats “ no one would care, so I would say that livable is a good marketing verb.
Woah there are so many Ottawa clips on this video
YaY Vienna! So happy to live here :D
Vienna is a bit expensive but not so much compared to other world capitals.
I've heard such good things about Osaka :)
I live in T.O. and earn about $9/hr above minimum wage and over 50% of my income goes to rent. T.O. is not a livable city for people earning ~ $50k/yr. So yeah, this "study" is definitely directed toward the higher income earners...
Quite weird to base the liveability of a city for 10% on mostly private education. They should rename the list: most desirable cities for wealthy expats or something.
Yeah, especially because our relationship with private education is very different here in Austria, this is clearly a very American way of looking at it. I know that sometimes our private universities have a bit of a reputation of "oh you did not make it into public university so you had to go and buy your degree".
I would choose Montreal over Vancouver any day. Vancouver is literally a nightmare to live in.
Your critiques are fairly valid, but sounding off on Calgary being ranked higher than Montreal (a city you are clearly passionate about), demonstrates to me you need to spend more time in Calgary and Alberta. Safe, great lifestyle, high paying jobs, affordable housing, and access to amenities. I have to wonder if your critiques would be different if Montreal was ranked much higher.
Calgary sucks. I'm sorry, I want to like it but it's just a nothing burger rust belt city. Very little culture, sprawl, horrible weather, absolutely dead for 8 months out of the year.
Vancouver?! Nono it's too expensive. I love it here but it's barely affordable. I want to move to a different country. Especially with the inflation. Possibly the US. And no, not New York, San Fran or Los Angeles
That's it. I'm moving to Damascus, Syria.
How come there is little independent City ranking based on Social structure & Urban design/planning info graphics?
EIU is very highly regarded amongst expats and companies. Having lived on 4 continents and in a wide variety of cities I have to say that Copenhagen is simply amazing. I'm not a fan of Vienna myself but its certainly great. Interestingly, the difference in scores between the two comes in a few distinct places. So be alert to what may or may not be important to you personally.
Some amazing cities included - all with their ups and down - positives and negatives.
This reminds me of "Top Universities" lists where they rank by how many CEOs have a degree from...
I am always very suspicious of those ranking as they really seem to favor US-American universities. And from all the people I know who went to the US for and exchange year (high school or university) it seems like it is generally easier there. So either there are huge differences withing the country with the US being one of the best and one of the worst place for education in the western world or those metrics are a bit skewed.
I wonder how Singapore rates in this list. It's a desirable place for companies to bring in professional expats but I rarely see it near the top of this list.
English is not my first language, but I think I heard "Paris is an urbanistic sweetheart"!? lol
Paris is an urbanist sweetheart, yes! It's highly-regarded among urbanists and city lovers for the architecture, density, walkability, world-class transit (with massive improvements underway), bike infrastructure was lagging but has been improving recently, etc. The major issue that stands out from my perspective is probably housing affordability.
(Also we should have subtitles available for this video. Feel free to check them out if we talk too fast to easily understand in your second language!)
Jason Slaughter (aka NotJustBikes) will have a fit seeing Toronto making this bogus Top 10 list. Can't wait for his reaction, LOL.
That's so dangerous - if they establish trust and businesses start buying their index to choose cities to relocate to, they can start manipulating markets at an unprecedented scale. In a year they can change the landscape of any city they choose to put on that list.
I saw ranking where Bahrain was considered as the best country to live as an expat. Don’t trust anything that you see in the internet.
Never trust any business report, based on financial benefit. Always use your brains and consult many sources.
You think that the list makers are not aware of their credibility? how long would it take you to see the bias built in to a report? If it takes you more than two lines you need advice from those more experienced.
Ok before you put on your tinfoil hat, know that the cities on the list are usually quite consistent and that no one seriously bases their decision 100% on it. It's just a datapoint to consider among many others.
I live in Vancouver, and I’d say that pound for pound it is probably the best city to live in in North America for its urban fabric, public transit, bike infrastructure, and incredible access to nature.
But the costs are absolutely crushing. . .
You forgot breathtakingly beautiful.
Four season activities year round!
Public transit in Vancouver sucks. London and Tokyo are leaps and bounds ahead.
@@patrickt49 And they are 5x larger... So not a valid point. takes longer in london unless you use the trains. North America will never use trains - distances are to far between cities car are faster.
Doesn't it have an awful drug and homeless crisis at the moment?
Anyone know of any European specific lists?
This also doesn't mention difficulty of assimilation. If, for example, I want to relocate from the US to one of these super cities, what is the likelihood that the locals welcome me in vs. treat me like crap. With such a factor, certain cities, like Vienna might get knocked down a peg.
I'm tempted to make a video about an affordable, walkable city, with single family homes on quiet streets starting about US$140,000, strong industry, twice daily trains to Chicago, sidewalks often separated from the street, corner stores, much as it was 75 years ago. They exist. My theory is that people have been moving to bigger metropolises than in previous generations, and smaller cities, even if connected by transit, even if lovely, even if they have jobs, even if it's easy to afford a house with backyard and patio, are left behind.
Well in this case you have to take into consideration the so called “knowledge economy”, an economy in which the highest paying jobs require a lot of skills in very high specialized industries and jobs. This type economy is definitely restricted to big cities more so than “low knowledge”, I can’t think of better term economy
I still live in Depression 🥲
Melbourne is definitely a livable city!
...if you don't need to rely on the streetcars to move around. Lovely city otherwise.
I've been to half of these cities and don't think they should have made this list. Melbourne and Vancouver especially.
It's funny that you had so many pics of Ottawa, but we weren't even included in the list! Surely if they had, we'd be higher than Calgary! I wonder how they decide on which cities to include, because Ottawa has the same population as Calgary...
Not better than Calgary but definitely better than Toronto lol
Ottawa is garbage
It’s too bad the report is so expensive. It would be really interesting to try to reverse engineer the proprietary category scores using a bunch of economic/census data and principle component analysis…
As a kiwi, Auckland is the one city in the country that I would not consider livable. Being focused on business interests makes that make a lot more sense...
Traffic duh
This list is what bosses think the workers prioritise, not an honest appraisal of the quality of life in each city. I've lived in Sydney most of my life and while it looks great on paper with good public transit, parks, cultural experiences, beautiful scenery and good weather, it's also the most stressful city in Australia. Everyone is always rushing, the housing market is insanely overpriced, there's not enough rentals available - seriously, every time there's an inspection day for people to view a rental property and apply to rent it, there's hundreds of people lining up. Which drives the price of rentals up beyond what people can afford, but they have no choice other than homelessness, so they take it and even offer more to try and beat out the other applicants.
Sydney just has too many NIMBYs and too much red tape to build enough housing fast enough. The building companies figured out they make much bigger profit margins by building luxury housing, so they pretty much all stopped making affordable housing, and the government hasn't kept up with the minimum requirements to build enough public housing for those in need for decades, and completely ignored making sure affordable housing was being built.
It's a great city if you have enough money to afford to live in a nice place near the middle of it, but for those with more modest means, get ready to spend lots of time commuting to work.
I feel like they came up with a somewhat reasonable list. Copenhagen and Vienna are definitely among the most pleasant cities I have visited. They are clean, feel very safe, are very walkable, in the case of Copenhagen very bikeable, and the transit is good. (I have heard both spoken of in the context of "rude" cities, but in my experience, people in both were always polite, honest and respectful)
Someone should really collaborate with ppl across the world to get a list or category set for average folk wanting to move around (at least for a handful of countries/cities) that that includes public services more in depth and more accurately in their judgement. I get so frustrated when I try to look things up and all the lists say "it would cost x amount (without rent)" and its like excuse me?!?!?!!? Rent is such a huge factor and amount wtf why would you leave that out like its nothing!!!!
Having lived in both Geneva and Toronto there's no way I would rank them on the same level from an Urbanist standpoint.
Which city is better?
@@sm3675 I would put Geneva above. Rents and cost of living are high, and quite cosmopolitan in both places so it doesn't really make much of a difference. Geneva however feels a lot safer and it doesn't have the drug/gun/homelessness problem that some parts of Toronto deal with. Although the city itself is much smaller than Toronto, the relative lack of sprawl compared to Toronto also means that the city is a lot more walkable/ bike-able. You can get around to wherever you need to be within 15-20 minutes in most cases and a car isn't necessary. It has no metro system, but it makes for the lack of it with a much better tram/LRT network imo. The bus (and also trolley bus) network does a great job too. They take you pretty much everywhere much like the TTC. Geneva's Cornavin station has a lot of frequent regional, intercity and international trains and offers a quick and easy service to the Airport (that is in every way superior to UP Express imo). The airport also provides free tickets for arrivals to use the train and public transit to get to your destination in the city. The best part of it is the punctuality and quality of the service provided. Bus/train/tram are clean, modern, well built and well maintained and most importantly always on time even if off peak frequency can drop to 15 minutes on some routes; delays on TPG and CFF network are a rare event compared to the TTC/Via Rail.
I just want to point out that they put Zurich in the list as a token for German Switzerland and Geneva as a token for French Switzerland. Other cities would appear in the list if they included all swiss cities in the study. For example, Basel is much better than Geneva. Lucerne and Bern are also better than most cities in the list, except for the lack of an airport.
People claim that Zurich is a very expensive city. But living in Basel is much cheaper than living in Lisbon, for the same salary level.... Most people have no idea what they are talking about!
The idea is based off what you get in a city regardless of if you have no money or a lot. Which is only fair way to compare
Montreal made the list but it was placed #25! Still pretty good comparing it to hundreds of other cities.
Also, the question is, which cities are ranked in the first place. I mean, those are not just the largest cities in the world. For example, I recently traveled through Spain and from the cities I visited, Bilbao is by far the most livable citie in Spain. But it's not even ranked while being larger than Geneva. Also, in Japan only Osaka and Tokyo are ranked. This realy shows, that this is a ranking for big american and maybe european companies.
Many of these lists are exactly what you described. And index of subjective ratings given by their own analysts with some fancy math used to make it look like more than just guesswork.
This list also looks like it doesnt have clear inclusion criteria for cities. They definitely didn't rate every city in India for example, but its unclear if they are using an income or population cut off for inclusion on the list.
I have lived in Vancouver for all of my 68 years. I have traveled enough to have a pretty good understanding of many other cities. I wouldn't live anywhere else. I can walk across the city at any time of day or night and, for the most part, never worry about my safety. The biggest crime problem we have is, like many other big cities, drug and gang related. But, the gun component results from guns being smuggled into Canada from the U.S. Being mainly north of the U.S., we are often described as the country that lives over the meth lab.
And that's great... But if you HADN'T lived in Vancouver for 7 decades, you wouldn't have a hope in hell of living there. It's catastrophically expensive for anyone who isn't massively wealthy, or already got in before everything went completely insane.
@@Arclite02 Massively wealthy ? Just not true. I have a dear friend who has a nice apartment in a nice area with a reasonable rent.
You couldn't pay me to walk through downtown eastside in broad daylight, let alone night. Kits, West, and North Van are the only very safe neighborhoods and all 3 have had recent violent attacks by the tremendous homeless population.
Nice dig at the US but a HUGE portion of Vancouver's core is as bad, or worse, than any US city. Vancouver has a lot of pros and is a great city, but let's not pretend it's nearly as safe or clean as any number of European cities.
These lists need to stop overlooking Kigali Rwanda. Clean, safe, livable.
Have you taken into consideration the worsening traffic tho?
i moved out of toronto a few years ago to just outside the city. a 30 min train ride takes me downtown to work, but i would say toronto isn't livable anymore
I’ve not been to Montreal myself but have heard great things about it.
I have a bit more insight into the Vancouver vs Calgary debate. Were money no object I think Vancouver is preferable to Calgary due to natural surroundings and weather. The year Calgary ranked higher than Vancouver seemed to get a lot of “panties in knots”. When affordability and the people of the city are considered I can certainly see how Calgary might rank higher than Vancouver.
I'm a Torontonian. Now I understand why we scored so high. The transportation system has broken down. The price of housing is beyond belief.
Transportation system has broken down? Where do you live in Toronto?
As a former Sydney resident, it is probably a great place to live if you can afford to shell out $3 million for a home within 10km of the city centre. For the rest of us plebs it's just an expensive car dependent hellhole.
Not really sure Australia can hold its head so high when we have kids who think Grand Theft Auto is a tutorial. Sure, none of our cities is Detroit or Chicago, but the idiots show no sign of changing their behaviour.
Calgary doesnt have a 100% score in infrastructure and culture/environment. Especially the later is non-existant.
I much prefer just about anything to the Economist's rankings. Monocle magazine also released theirs this month, and guess who's at the top there too? Vienna!
What separates the city from pretty much the rest of the West is its relatively affordable housing, which is a result of an over 100-year tradition of building and funding high-quality social housing, limiting speculation and encouraging socioeconomic mixing as much as possible. Public transport is also excellent (and only 365 euros/year), walkability is fabulous and the city has refused to privatise basic services that should never be subjected to the profit motive. And almost every day, I see the city announcing a new street that's being greened and either pedestrianised or traffic-calmed. I can't say any of those things about my current city of Vancouver, and I sadly doubt that this will change anytime soon.
For all these reasons and more, I think Vienna earns its ranking.
Yupp, it does. I lived there for quite a while. It is the greenest city in the world with 53% green spaces and they are trying to make it even greener. They also have a couple of bike infrastructure initiatives running that will see Vienna become a more bike-friendly city. If I am not mistaken this is the summer they want to build a lot of bike lanes and connect existing ones. The only real negative I can think of are the closing hours of shops. They close early and there's no business on Sundays.
@@ISeekSilencethe closing hours can be a good thing though, for example if you work in one of those shops. Especially if you have a family, having one day of the week that is kind of designated family time, because most don't have to work and you can't run a lot of errands etc, is actually quite nice in my opinion. It slows things down a bit which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Basically, "what's the best place to live if you have money?"
You don't need that much money in Vienna. Honestly. Just look for a nice flat outside the first districts and you'll do splendidly.
I feel like livable is such a weird word to use in a ranking. A place either is or isn't livable. Things like quality of life, safety, health, fairness, and affordability have actual rank-ability. Livability? Meaningless as a scale.
If a city wasn't liveable at all then nobody would live there. But I think it's fair to say that Vienna is an easier place to live than Tripoli or Aleppo.
I suspect corruption is an aspect of why Calgary ranked higher than Montreal. I remember finding it a little funny that most of the national discussion when this list came out was that Calgary was the surprise of Calgary being ranked highest. Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal were shocked/offended. I found it interesting that virtually nothing was said about Edmonton not making the top 100 list as there is quite a large, friendly, rivalry between the two cities.
Edmonton is a bit of a hole. Winters are horrible, and it's way too spread out and industrial. And the crime rate isn't great.
Toronto has amazing amenities. Too bad it's almost impossible to get to any of them. Traffic is rush hour all day. To many homeless with mental illness roaming the streets and growing tent cities.
5:24
Industry: Automotive 💀
I think small cities are generally better to live in than large cities. You get all the amenities you need, but without the traffic jams, with less crime, less littering and friendlier people. A 100k population is a nice size. There are probably a hundred cities that are more liveable than any city on this list.
I’ve been living and working in 20 locations scattered across 6 countries, and the term livability is very subjective. The places I appreciated the most were safe walkable communities with everything available within a 5 minute walk and lots to see and do near-by. Car-centric sprawling cities with homes only 1% of the population can afford would not be near the top of the list. How about some of the smaller European cities? The Hague? Strasbourg, Cologne?
Well maybe they’re positioned a little bit lower, but I think they won’t take into consideration cities that are smaller than the ones listed. The only exception is Zurich but I think you have to put it considering the audience this list is made for.