The Economist: Most Liveable Cities, 2016

• Posted on Sep 06, 2016
• In Press

The latest findings of The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Ranking – which provides scores for lifestyle challenges in 140 cities worldwide – show that although Melbourne has retained its crown as the world’s most liveable city, liveability has deteriorated in 29 of the 140 cities surveyed over the last 12 months. The decline is largely a result of heightened fears over terrorism with more than 1,000 reported attacks in 2016 so far. Factors such as social unrest in many US cities due to the deaths of black people in police custody, tensions in Eastern Europe and Asia and the ongoing civil wars in Ukraine, Syria and Libya have compounded the decline.

Six of the top 10 most livable cities in the world are in countries operating an Immigrant Investor Program, namely Canada (Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary) and Australia (Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth). This reinforces the findings of the Wealthy Migrant, a report issued by the Economist Intelligence Unit in collaboration with Arton Capital, where the migration patterns of HNWIs showed strongest interest for the Australian and Canadian programs.

The top-scoring cities ranked highly across five broad categories – stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure, which also appeared to be among the key motivations for HNWIs when choosing a Program. And that seems to be the formula. According to liveable cities report, “those that score best tend to be mid-sized cities in wealthier countries with a relatively low population density” that can “foster a range of recreational activities without leading to high crime levels or overburdened infrastructure.”

The least-liveable cities of the 140 surveyed were characterized by conflict and civil unrest. At the bottom of the list was Damascus which has fallen 26.1 percentage points in the past five years due to civil war. It is the sharpest drop in liveability of any city, followed by Kiev, Ukraine, which fell 25.1 points to 131st place, due to conflict with Russia. The five least-liveable cities were Damascus followed by Tripoli, Libya; Lagos, Nigeria; Dhaka, Bangladesh; and Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.