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Melbourne revealed as world's best city to live in for seventh year running

London, one of only two UK cities to feature, came 53rd

Sarah Young
Wednesday 16 August 2017 13:17 BST
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(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Melbourne has once again been named as the world’s most ‘liveable’ city for the seventh year in a row.

After ranking 140 destinations each year on healthcare, education, stability, culture, environment and infrastructure, the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EUI) Liveability Index has revealed the best and worst places to live in the world.

Famed for its trendy cafes, bars and laneways, Melbourne stole the top spot once again with a near-perfect rating of 97.5 out of 100.

A first in its 15-year history, this is the first time that a city has held first place in its own right for seven consecutive years.

Closely followed by Vienna with a score of 97.4, Vancouver (97.3), Toronto (07.2) and Calgary (96.6) made up the top five.

The top 10 remained identical to last year’s line-up with Adelaide, Perth, Auckland, Helsinki and Hamburg following behind.

While cities like Amsterdam, Reykjavik, Budapest and Singapore saw a boost in the rankings, the 2017 report said that the on-going threat of terrorism around the world had an effect on several scores.

Manchester slipped eight places to 51st in light of the heightened terror threat that followed the bomb attack at an Arianda Grande concert back in May, while Stockholm’s rating also fell after a terror attack in April.

London held on to the same position as last year at 53rd.

As for the least liveable cities, Damascus ranked worst followed by Lagos, Tripoli, Dhaka, Port Moresby and Algiers.

According to the study, cities that scored best “tend to be mid-sized cities in wealthier countries with a relatively low population density.”

“Six of the 10 top-scoring cities are in Australia and Canada, which have, respectively, population densities of 2.9 and 3.7 people per square kilometre,” it adds.

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