You know your country is on to a winning formula when 4 out of the 10 most liveable cities in the world are within your borders, so what make Australian cities – and Melbourne in particular – so fantastic?
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.
You often overhear travellers saying that they will return to Melbourne city to live, work or raise a family – and many of them do, with the city boasting vibrant expat and immigrant communities (the Greek community, for example.)
The EIU also 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
These rankings are especially reassuring for families living in Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and Perth as it puts to bed any ‘grass is greener’ syndrome of places like New Zealand or Scandanavia (despite Auckland and Helsinki managing to sneak in with 9th and 10th place respectively!)
So what are you waiting for? If you can’t beat them, join them.