Calgary makes top ten list of livable cities

CTV Calgary: Calgary comes in 5th Calgary has tied for fifth place in a global livability survey. Lea Williams-Doherty takes a look at the contenders.

The Economist Intelligence Unit has put out its latest report and three Canadian cities are ranked among the top 10 of the world’s most livable cities.

The study looked at 140 cities and assigned each a score between 1 and 100; with 1 being ‘tolerable’ and 100 being ‘ideal’.

The score is based on more than 30 factors that fall into five categories: stability, health care, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

According to the report Melbourne, Australia is the most livable city followed by Vienna, Austria, Vancouver and Toronto. Calgary is tied for fifth with Adelaide, Australia.

The report suggests that cities at the top of the rankings are similar, in that they tend to be mid-sized and in wealthier countries with relatively low population levels.

“This can foster a range of recreational activities without leading to high crime levels or overburdened infrastructure,” the report says.

The findings show that livability across the world has fallen 0.7 percent since 2009 and the score for stability and safety has fallen 1.3 percent.

Localized instability in some cities is being blamed for dragging down some of the scores.

For example, events in Ukraine affected the scores for Kyiv, as well as for the Russian cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg and protests in Bangkok also negatively impacted that city’s livability index.

Overall, the average global livability score has fallen by 0.16 percent over the past six months and 0.22 percentage points over the past 12 months, to 75.33.

“When a five-year view is taken, global liveability has declined by 0.68 percentage points, highlighting the fact that the last five years have been characterised by heightened unrest in the wake of the global economic crisis, which has undermined many of the developmental gains that cities may have experienced through public policy and investment,” the report said.

Over 50 of the 140 cities surveyed have seen declines in livability in the last five years.

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(With files from ctvnews.ca)