The annual index assesses 30 factors in the areas of stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. “A rollback of covid-19 restrictions has translated into liveability ranking resembling those seen before the pandemic,” the Economist’s Intelligence Unit said in its report.
Austria’s capital Vienna re-took top position after being de-throned by Auckland, New Zealand during the pandemic in 2020. Also in the top ten are Copenhagen, Zurich, Calgary, Vancouver, Geneva, Frankfurt, Toronto, Amsterdam, Osaka and Melbourne.
The top ten cities all have a score of 95 out of 100 or higher. Luxembourg comes in 17th with a score of 94 overall. This includes 95 points for stability with acceptable levels of crime, according to the Economist. Luxembourg’s culture and environment scored 93 points, although the recreational sports and culture activities received only a “tolerable” rating.
The Economist gave 93 points to Luxembourg’s infrastructure. Even though the country’s public transport is free its quality doesn’t convince. The capital scored best on healthcare, with a full 100 points, and worst in education where it received only 83 points, largely because of “uncomfortable” general public education indicators.
Luxembourg generally performs poorly in the OECD’s Pisa study, a survey of the knowledge level of pupils at different age groups. The country has in the past blamed its multilingualism on learning difficulties as students spend around a fifth of their time studying languages and a lack of proficiency in one tongue can negatively impact progress in numerous disciplines.
Liveability to suffer
Overall, the Economist’s report expects liveability to suffer over the next year. The pandemic isn’t over yet, it said. “Our core assumption is that a new variant will cause a global wave of cases later this year,” which could lead to a “combination of social restrictions and a renewed vaccination push.”
The war in Ukraine meanwhile “will continue to fuel global inflation and dampen economic growth.” Governments will be looking to economise, the report suggests, and the cost-of-living crisis will mean that households are set to tighten their belts and spend less on cultural life. Businesses in sectors still reeling from the pandemic, such as restaurants, might not survive, “reducing liveability further.”
The bottom ten countries in the Global Liveability Index area Tehran, Douala in Cameroon, Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, Dhaka, Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, Karachi, Algiers, Tripoli, Lagos and Damascus.