Vancouver No. 1, Toronto No. 5 on most livable cities list
B.C. city takes top ranking for fifth year in a row in Economist magazine survey
Last Updated: Thursday, August 23, 2007 | 12:35 PM PT
CBC News
Vancouver has been ranked the best place to live in the world for the fifth year in a row in a survey by the Economist magazine, while Toronto took fifth place out of 132 cities.
| Top 10 cities | Livability index (%)* |
|---|---|
|
1. Vancouver |
1.3 |
| 2. Melbourne | 1.8 |
| 3. Vienna | 2.3 |
| 4. Perth | 2.5 |
| 5. Toronto | 3.0 |
| 6. Adelaide | 3.0 |
| 7. Sydney | 3.2 |
| 8. Copenhagen | 3.7 |
| 9. Geneva | 3.9 |
| 10. Zurich | 3.9 |
| (*0% indicates exceptional quality of living and 100% indicates an intolerable one) | |
The two Canadian cities rank among the top five because they have low crime rates, little threat from instability or terrorism, and a highly developed transport and communications infrastructure, says the survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
Vancouver scored a livability index of 1.3 per cent, with zero indicating exceptional quality of living and 100 indicating life there is intolerable or severely restricted.
A good transportation system helped Vancouver top the Economist's list of the world's most livable cities, again.
(Charlie Cho/CBC)
Toronto's livability index was 3.0.
Australia also fared well in the survey, securing four spots among the top 10 cities.
Algiers came in at the bottom of the ranking. Nine cities, including Algiers, present the worst-case scenario in which most aspects of living quality are severely restricted, according to the survey.
The EIU's livability ranking is part of the magazine's Worldwide Cost of Living Survey.
The survey considered 40 individual factors in categories such as stability, health care, culture, environment, education and infrastructure.
