Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto Draw More International Attention
In the latest release of the EIU Liveability Index, Vancouver ranked fifth, Calgary seventh, and Toronto 9th in the world when compared to 173 other global cities.
Compared to 2022, their scores for stability improved. They took a hit in 2021 dues to anti-vaccine protests.
How is the EIU Livability Index Calculated?
Liveability is a simple concept that assesses living conditions worldwide. It has various uses like benchmarking development perceptions and expatriate relocation packages. Our rating measures challenges to lifestyle and allows direct comparisons between locations. Each city is rated for comfort across 30+ factors in stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. Factors are graded from acceptable to intolerable. Qualitative factors are assessed by analysts and contributors, while quantitative factors use external data. The pandemic's impact on healthcare, culture, environment, and education is reflected in our score, with new indicators added.
Stress on healthcare resources
Restrictions on local sporting events
Restrictions on theatre
Restrictions on classic and modern music concerts
Restrictions on restaurants, bars, coffee shops and nightclubs
Restrictions on educational institutes
The scores for these new indicators and its effect are incorporated in our existing healthcare, culture and environment, and education ratings. The scores are then weighted to provide a score out of 100, where 1 is considered intolerable and 100 is considered ideal.
The liveability rating is provided both as an overall score and as a score for each category, the score is also given for each category relative to New York, and an overall position in the ranking of 173 cities is provided.
Top Cities in the World
A shift back towards normality after the COVID-19 pandemic and improvements in liveability made by many developing countries have been the biggest drivers of changes in rankings. With the end of COVID restrictions, the 2023 survey shows a noticeable global improvement.
The average index score across all 172 cities (excluding Kyiv) reached 76.2 out of 100, up from 73.2 in 2021. This is the highest score in 15 years for the original comparable list of 140 cities. Average quality of urban living is improving.
Healthcare scores have improved the most, with smaller gains for education, culture and environment, and infrastructure.
Only stability has seen a small decline, reflecting increasing perceptions of corruption and civil unrest in many cities amid a cost-of-living crisis, as well as an uptick in crime in some cities.
This return to relative normality means that Vienna retained its position as the world’s most liveable city in the 2023 survey. The Austrian capital slipped down the rankings in 2021, when its famous museums and restaurants faced restrictions to contain the pandemic, but Vienna has consistently ranked in the top ten in past surveys. The city continues to offer an unsurpassed combination of stability, good infrastructure, strong education and healthcare services, and plenty of culture and entertainment, with one of its few downsides being a relative lack of major sporting events.
The same is true of Copenhagen, another frequent high performer that has kept its position in second place from last year.
Melbourne and Sydney have moved up to fill spots claimed last year by western European cities such as Frankfurt and Amsterdam. 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.
The Swiss cities of Zurich (6th place) and Geneva (joint 7th), education category scores have risen since last year.
In the Canadian cities of Vancouver (5th), Calgary (joint 7th) and Toronto (9th), scores for stability are up compared with last year, when these cities were impacted by anti-vaccine protests.
The end of covid-related restrictions has given a small boost to the culture and environment ratings of the Japanese city of Osaka (10th).
All regions have benefited from the increase in average scores, even western Europe. The Asia-Pacific region, which has done away with the last of its COVID restrictions, leads the gains.
The survey covers 173 cities (including Kyiv). Many cities in the Middle East, which have benefited from the recent oil price rally, are also well-placed to pump extra funding into public services and infrastructure. In fact, several cities across the developing world have registered higher scores for healthcare and education owing to incremental structural improvements in the availability of physicians and hospital beds, and school completion rates, among others. As the world’s political and economic axis continues to shift eastwards, we expect the cities in these regions to move slowly up our liveability rankings.
What this means for home buyers
The July 2023 benchmark prices for houses in Vancouver, Toronto, and Calgary are:
Metro Vancouver $2,012,900
Metro Toronto $1,489,100
Metro Calgary $690,500
If your goal is to live in a top tier city then Calgary is the best value. Think of all the tropical winter vacations you could take with an extra half a million dollars in your pocket!
