It’s happy days for our brothers and sisters across the ditch with 4 out of the top 10 most liveable cities in the world residing in Australian territory, but luckily Auckland sneaked on the list too!
It’s official, for the second year running, Melbourne tops the charts as the worlds most liveable city with Vienna and Vancouver following closely at her heels.
Melbourne’s aura and culture has metropolises the world over envious and curious to know – how has she garnered such critical acclaim?
According to the 2015 Global Liveability Ranking from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Melbourne scores extremely well on the 5 major criteria: stability, infrastructure, education, healthcare and environment.
For first time visitors it’s obvious why Melbourne stands head and shoulders above the rest: great coffee, a fantastic choice of quality restaurants, the sands of St Kilda, free downtown trams, Flinders Street Station, a burgeoning arts and music scene, a healthy obssession with sport and a general air of culture around every corner and side street.
Luckily for us Kiwis the city of sails sneaked on the list ranking 9th just in front of Helsinki and behind Perth. On many grounds Auckland competes nicely with Melbourne including our rich and diverse multi-culturism, a fantastic array of beaches and solid economic opportunities to boot.
Most Aucklanders would agree that in order to compete with the Australian heavyweights public transport and house affordability would need to see vast improvements (and perhaps the coffee too!). But in the meantime why not revel in the fact that you are studying, running a business, raising a family or retiring in one of the worlds great lifestyle cities.
The EIU notes that the most liveable places tend to be mid-sized cities in wealthier countries with a relatively low population density – which explains the exclusion of cities such as London, New York and Paris.
- Melbourne
- Vienna
- Vancouver
- Toronto
- Calgary
- Adelaide
- Sydney
- Perth
- Auckland
- Helsinki
And Wellingtonians your day will come – just have to find a way to tame the wild wind and some of those pesky politicians!