The more things change, the more they stay the same. Vancouver, currently hosting the Winter Olympics, has been named the world's most livable city (again) by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
The city scored 98 points out of 100. That was the same score as last year, when it also topped the list of great places to live.
The rankings are generated using scores of 0-100 across 30 different factors, which are categorized into five areas. The areas are stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. The numbers are combined and generate a total figure.
The EIU gives more insight into how it determines its rankings here.
The total ranking number is defined as follows:
- 80–100 There are few, if any, challenges to living standards
- 70–80 Day–to–day living is fine, in general, but some aspects of life may entail problems
- 60–70 Negative factors have an impact on day-to-day living
- 50–60 Liveability is substantially constrained
- 50 or less Most aspects of living are severely restricted
The various categories, including the specific factors, are as follows:
Category 1: Stability (weight: 25% of total)
- Prevalence of petty crime
- Prevalence of violent crime
- Threat of terror
- Threat of military conflict
- Threat of civil unrest/conflict
Category 2: Healthcare (weight: 20% of total)
- Availability of private healthcare
- Quality of private healthcare
- Availability of public healthcare
- Quality of public healthcare
- Availability of over-the-counter drugs
- General healthcare indicators
Category 3: Culture & Environment (weight: 25% of total)
- Humidity/temperature rating
- Discomfort of climate to travellers
- Level of corruption
- Social or religious restrictions
- Level of censorship
- Sporting availability
- Cultural availability
- Food and drink
- Consumer goods and services
Category 4: Education (weight: 10% of total)
- Availability of private education
- Quality of private education
- Public education indicators
Category 5: Infrastructure (weight: 20% of total)
- Quality of road network
- Quality of public transport
- Quality of international links
- Availability of good quality housing
- Quality of energy provision
- Quality of water provision
- Quality of telecommunications
Here is the list of top 10 cities from the EIU:
1. Vancouver 98;
2. Vienna 97.9;
3. Melbourne 97.5;
4. Toronto 97.2;
5. Calgary 96.6;
6. Helsinki 96.2;
7. Sydney 96.1;
8. Perth 95.9; (tie)
Adelaide 95.9;
10. Auckland 95.7
Interestingly, all of those are in Canada or the Australia / New Zealand area, with the exception of Helsinki (Finland). One has to wonder if global warming was taken into account, as that will make Canada more temperate, and Australia less livable.
Written by Michael Santo
HULIQ.com
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