Each year, The Economist publishes a ranking of the cities with the best living conditions. In 2024, the Liveability Index saw slight improvements, despite geopolitical conflicts, civil unrest and housing crises. This is partly due to advances in healthcare and education in a number of cities in developing markets.
As the following chart shows, Vienna has been crowned as the world’s most liveable city, having secured an impressive score of 98.4 points. The Austrian capital has come first three years in a row thanks to its high scores in the categories of stability, infrastructure, education and healthcare. The Danish capital of Copenhagen and the Swiss city of Zurich are the next two cities to round off the podium.
Although both of the Australian cities of Sydney and Melbourne and Canada’s Vancouver remain in the top ten, all three cities have seen their infrastructure scores drop due to their respective housing crises. For this reason, Toronto in Canada fell to rank 12 in 2024.
At the bottom of the list come Damascus in Syria, Tripoli in Libya and Algiers in Algeria. The Ukrainian city of Kiev also features in the bottom 10, having been added back to the index last year after it was removed due to Russia’s invasion in 2022. It ranks 165th, with a score of 26.8.
The study is based on the "Global Liveability Index", which determines and compares the varying quality of life of each city’s residents, grouped under five subcategories: infrastructure, healthcare, culture and environment, education and stability. The full list comprises 173 cities.
