City quality of life indices

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) publishes an annual Global Liveability Ranking, which ranks 140 cities for their urban quality of life based on assessments of their stability, health care, culture, environment, education and infrastructure.^[5]

Melbourne, Australia, had been ranked by the EIU as the world's most livable city for seven years in a row, from 2011 to 2017.^[6] Between 2004 and 2010, Vancouver, Canada, was ranked the EIU's most livable city, with Melbourne sharing first place in the inaugural 2002 report. Vancouver has ranked third since 2015, while Vienna, Austria, ranked second until 2018 when it climbed to the top spot.

The Syrian capital, Damascus, was ranked the least livable city of the 173 assessed in 2024.^[7][8]

The EIU also publishes a Worldwide Cost of Living Survey that compares the cost of living in a range of global cities.^[9]

EIU's Global Liveability Ranking 2024[10]
	City	Country/Region
1	Vienna	Austria
2	Copenhagen	Denmark
3	Zürich	Switzerland
4	Melbourne	Australia
5	Calgary	Canada
5	Geneva	Switzerland
7	Sydney	Australia
7	Vancouver	Canada
9	Osaka	Japan
9	Auckland	New Zealand

Since 2006, the lifestyle magazine Monocle has published an annual list of livable cities. The list in 2008 was named "The Most Livable Cities Index" and presented 20 top locations for quality of life.

Important criteria in this survey are safety/crime, international connectivity, climate/sunshine, quality of architecture, public transport, tolerance, environmental issues and access to nature, urban design, business conditions, proactive policy developments and medical care.

The 2023 Monocle Survey determined the world's most livable city was Vienna, followed by Copenhagen, Munich and Zürich.^[11]

Monocle's Quality of Life Survey 2023[11]
	City	Country/Region
1	Vienna	Austria
2	Copenhagen	Denmark
3	Munich	Germany
4	Zürich	Switzerland
5	Stockholm	Sweden
6	Tokyo	Japan
7	Helsinki	Finland
8	Madrid	Spain
9	Lisbon	Portugal
10	Melbourne	Australia
11	Berlin	Germany
12	Paris	France
13	Amsterdam	Netherlands
14	Sydney	Australia
15	Singapore	Singapore
16	Kyoto	Japan
17	Athens	Greece
18	Milan	Italy
19	Oslo	Norway
20	Seoul	South Korea

Global Finance is an English-language monthly financial magazine that publishes a list of the world's best cities to live that is based on a score that reflects a comprehensive list of eight unique factors. These are: economic strength; research and development; cultural interaction; livability; environment; accessibility; GDP per capita (nominal in U.S. dollars); and COVID-19 deaths per million for the country.^[12]

The World's Best Cities to Live In 2022[13]
	City	Country/Region
1	London	United Kingdom
2	Tokyo	Japan
3	Shanghai	China
4	Singapore	Singapore
5	Melbourne	Australia
6	Sydney	Australia
7	Paris	France
8	Beijing	China
9	New York	United States
10	Amsterdam	Netherlands

American global human resources and related financial services consulting firm Mercer annually releases its Mercer Quality of Living Survey, comparing 221 cities based on 39 criteria. New York City is given a baseline score of 100 and other cities are rated in comparison. Important criteria are safety, education, hygiene, health care, culture, environment, recreation, political-economic stability, public transport and access to goods and services. The list is intended to help multinational companies decide where to open offices or plants, and how much to pay employees. Mercer has ranked Austria's capital Vienna first in its annual "Quality of Living" survey since 2009.

Mercer's Quality of Living Ranking 2023[14]
	City	Country/Region
1	Vienna	Austria
2	Zürich	Switzerland
3	Auckland	New Zealand
4	Copenhagen	Denmark
5	Geneva	Switzerland
6	Frankfurt	Germany
7	Munich	Germany
8	Vancouver	Canada
9	Sydney	Australia
10	Düsseldorf	Germany
11	The Hague	Netherlands
12	Wellington	New Zealand
13	Bern	Switzerland
14	Basel	Switzerland
14	Amsterdam	Netherlands
16	Luxembourg	Luxembourg
17	Toronto	Canada
18	Berlin	Germany
18	Ottawa	Canada
20	Montreal	Canada
20	Melbourne	Australia
22	Perth	Australia
23	Calgary	Canada
24	Oslo	Norway
25	Hamburg	Germany
26	Stockholm	Sweden
26	Stuttgart	Germany
28	Canberra	Australia
29	Singapore	Singapore
29	Adelaide	Australia
31	Nuremberg	Germany
32	Paris	France
33	Toulouse	France
34	Helsinki	Finland
34	Brisbane	Australia
36	Brussels	Belgium
37	San Francisco	United States
38	Lyon	France
39	Lisbon	Portugal
40	New York City	United States

The full ranking includes 241 cities.

The 2019 survey showed the following cities to be highest in quality of life, for numerous reasons^[15] (e.g. style, affordability, happiness and pollution etc.):

Cities with the highest quality of life 2019[15]
	City	Country/Region
1	Zürich	Switzerland
2	Wellington	New Zealand
3	Copenhagen	Denmark
4	Edinburgh	United Kingdom
5	Vienna	Austria
6	Helsinki	Finland
7	Melbourne	Australia
8	Boston	United States
9	San Francisco	United States
10	Sydney	Australia

Numbeo is a crowd-sourced global database of reported consumer prices, perceived crime rates, quality of health care, among other statistics.^[16]

Numbeo's Quality of Life Index In 2023[17]
	City	Country/Region
1	The Hague (Den Haag)	Netherlands
2	Eindhoven	Netherlands
3	Vienna	Austria
4	Canberra	Australia
5	Zürich	Switzerland
6	Rotterdam	Netherlands
7	Luxembourg	Luxembourg
8	Helsinki	Finland
9	Adelaide	Australia
10	Reykjavík	Iceland
11	Copenhagen	Denmark
12	Geneva	Switzerland
13	Edinburgh	United Kingdom
14	Amsterdam	Netherlands
15	Jacksonville, FL	United States
16	Orlando, FL	United States
17	Tampa, FL	United States
18	Munich	Germany
19	Melbourne	Australia
20	Sydney	Australia
21	Portland, OR	United States
22	Muscat	Oman
23	Brisbane	Australia
24	Abu Dhabi	United Arab Emirates
25	Gothenburg	Sweden
26	Raleigh, NC	United States
27	Spokane, WA	United States
28	Cambridge	United Kingdom
29	Perth	Australia
30	Austin, TX	United States

The full ranking includes 242 cities.

• European Green Capital Award
• Global city
• Healthy city
• List of most expensive cities for expatriate employees
• List of largest cities
• Urban vitality