Vancouver ranks first, Toronto fourth, Calgary fifth. Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney all make the top 10. Vienna, Helsinki, Geneva, and Zurich round out the top 10. Props to my former hometown Pittsburgh, which topped the list of U.S. cities coming in 29th on the global list. Here are the top and bottom 10 from The Economist.
June 10th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Argh…I wish they would stop publishing rubbish lists like this. I grew up and live in Vancouver and dislike it very much. It’s only bearable when the weather is nice, which is about 3 months of the year. Otherwise, it’s probably the most pretentious city in Canada where only the upper echelons are actually able to enjoy themselves and all the fine dining, culture and recreation opportunities on offer. Yes, it’s one of the most beautifully situated cities I’ve been in and it has an excellent transit system by N.American standards…but that’s all. I wish it would stop topping lists, because it’s gone to everybody’s heads…with many thinking they live in a world-class city, when in fact, they do not. Van is just mediocre and will never live up to its potential (which could be the best city). Besides it probably has the most homeless ppl of the top 20.
June 10th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
What’s interesting about the list is that there are no U.S. cities in the top 10.
June 10th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
The criteria are: Stability, health care, culture, education and infrastructure. No US city is going to make it in health care and if they include K-12 not in education. A sad commentary on the world’s richest country.
Pittsburgh?????
June 10th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Re: Vancouver, I don’t think fine dining and luxury are weighted heavily in this list, and nor should they be. Last I checked, the parks in Vancouver are free, and you can eat well on a careful budget.
June 10th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
I’m from the USA (Atlanta) and I’ve also lived in Dallas, Denver, Little Rock, Baton Rouge, and a few smaller cities. I’m not extremely well traveled but I have been to Europe (Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris), Great Britain including Ireland, and a few Caribbean islands. I’ve visited Vancouver and Toronto a few times for both business and vacation. And I have to agree totally I’ve always found Vancouver to be my very favorite city with Toronto definitely in my top ten.
June 11th, 2009 at 7:06 am
Does “stability” equate with “boring”? Then that would explain why Perth (more stable, more boring, less culture) is ahead of Sydney (less stable, less boring, more culture). But Melbourne’s even greater culture must over-compensate for its greater instability, especially its gang-land activities. Melbourne is never boring!
And the trade-off must be exact for Zurich (more boring, more stable, less culture) and Geneva (less boring, less stable, more culture).
June 11th, 2009 at 11:37 am
@zb….I hear you and yes that’s true. I just meant it’s become too posh for its own good. It portrays itself as this town where everyone drives hybrids, eats organically and does yoga, but that’s the minority..Mike L. your hypothesis sounds about right. Everyone I know prefers Montreal (infinitely more exciting culturally) over Vancouver…
June 11th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Mike L., I have not been back to Perth for around 5 years, but I hear that it is quite a different place to what it was before the mining boom. I’ve read that trading restrictions for bars have been loosened, and that the new railway line is bringing many more people into the city centre.
Otherwise, I cannot believe that this survey is any where near accurate. Melbourne is “livable”? It was about 15 years ago, but in my opinion, it is fast losing any livability it once had.
The public transport is run down and crowded, led by a State Government Minister who said she didn’t want the job:
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/editorial/end-of-the-line-for-public-transport-minister-20090320-94f9.html?page=-1
SD, Melbourne sounds much like Vancouver – cloudy about 7 months of the year. I will agree that it has oodles of culture, and for that reason is a great place to visit – but no longer to live in.
I am strongly of the belief that this survey is done by people who stay in the cities’ finest hotels, eat in the fancy restaurants, and are probably based upon the views of executives or expatriates who are supported by packages that include health care, car parking, and subsidised housing.
It is hardly a representative survey of any city as a whole if the researchers don’t step outside of the CBD and examine how the vast majority of those citizens live.
June 18th, 2009 at 10:03 am
I would have to beg to differ on the statement re: Vancouver’s transit system; there’s nothing “great” about it. My experience when I liked in VCR was that it was a city that felt that if it kept thinking it was small, it would stay small, but it’s not a small town…it IS a big city and it really needs to improve its infrastructure to support that.
The cost of living is also astronomical in VCR. 18 years ago, a one litre bottle of milk was over $4!! Peppers sold at $8/lb!
Aesthetically, there’s not a more beautiful place to be, but from a real livability perspective, I think that you really have to have $$ to survive in Vancouver.
June 24th, 2009 at 11:29 am
As a world traveller and a long time Vancouver resident I sort of understand Vancouver’s high rank on this and many other city rankings (Mercer ranks Vancouver 4 worldwide). However I think the affordable housing problem of Vancouver has been left out of these rankings. Vancouver is totally unaffordable for most residents, particularly working class, and poorer residents, but also increasingly middle class residents. With housing prices falling this affordability crisis may be lessened but not by much. In the long run Vancouver will cease to be a city for all people and instead a city for wealthy, and elites. I would argue that someone should create a list of cities based on there ranking not for buissnessmen and professional quality of life but for ordinary everyday people, working class, students, poor, and low middle class people. These groups are totally unrepresented by these rankings.
October 19th, 2009 at 12:31 am
[...] Desta vez eu lembrei. Encontrei uma pesquisa divulgada em julho de 2009 da revista Economist feita com 140 cidades do mundo. “O ranking de Qualidade de Vida feito pela Economist leva em consideração 30 itens, tanto qualitativos quanto quantitativos, em cinco categorias: estabilidade, saúde, cultura e meio ambiente, educação e infraestrutura.“ (Época Negócios) Para ver o ranking todo é preciso fazer um cadastro no site da Economist, mas é possível juntar um ranking parcial com as matérias da revista Época, do jornal NZ Herald, do news.co.au e do creative class: [...]
February 4th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
So long as you are a visitor to Vancouver it is a great place. Just don’t try to live here. The city is completely overpriced. Local officials are inconsiderate and rude to locals. But if you are a tourist with cash you will be treated like royalty while your pockets are emptied.