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VIENNA.- According to the classification of The Economist magazine, Vienna continues to lead first place as the city with the best quality of life in the world for the third consecutive year. However, there were significant changes to the list, including the downgrade of the Tel Avivin Israel, due to the war against Hamas in Gaza.
The Austrian capital achieved perfect scores in four of the index’s five categories, placing it at the top of the ranking again. Three other European cities made the top five: Copenhagen, Zurich and Geneva.
All three stand out for its modest population sizewhich tends to lead to lower crime rates and public transportation systems less crowded. Two Canadian cities (Calgary and Vancouver) and four from Asia and the Pacific (Melbourne, Sydney, Osaka and Auckland) complete the top ten.
For its part, Buenos Aires leads the Ranking of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Economist’s annual survey ranks 173 cities in five categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.
The most significant changes from last year were Tel Aviv, which fell 20 places due to the war in Gaza, and Hong Kong, which went up 11thanks to the improvement of its stability and health scores.
Among the 10 cities with the best quality of life are four European, two North American and four from the Asia Pacific region. “Western Europe remains the most habitable region” indicates a statement from the EIU.
The analysis group highlights, however, that its stability indices decreased by “increasing cases of protests (…) on a variety of issues”from the rise of far-right extremism to the European Union’s agricultural policy and anti-immigration policies.
Vienna took first place again this year, winning the title of most liveable city in the world for the third year in a row. The Austrian capital obtained perfect scores in four of the index’s five categoriesbut the lack of major sporting events contributed to its lowest score of 93.5 out of 100 in the culture and environment category.
Overall, the quality of life in cities increased slightly last year, but the “improvement is only marginal, slowed by geopolitical conflicts, civil unrest and a real estate crisis in many cities” in the midst of inflation, the statement said.
The Israeli city of Tel Aviv fell 20 placesmore than any other, until finishing in position 112 out of 173 in the classification.
The capital of Syria, Damascus, devastated by war, still rooted at the end of the table: has been the least liveable city on the index since 2013, scoring just 30.7 in 2024. Its stability score of 20 is tied with Karachi as the lowest of all the cities surveyed.
Due to the war in Ukraine, kyiv also performs poorly in this category, ranking among the last ten cities in the index for the second consecutive year.
The capital of Venezuela, Caracasis among the ten least livable cities on the planet, just ahead of Kyivthe capital of Ukraine, at war with Russia since February 2022. Other cities at the bottom of the ranking are: Harare, Dhaka, Karachi, Lagos, Algiers and Tripoli.
AP and AFP Agencies
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