Nick Noorani Website

PLUS ça change. Vancouver is still the most liveable city in the world, according to the latest annual index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The Canadian city, which is currently gearing up to host the Winter Olympics, gets 98 points out of 100, the same as last year.

The ranking scores each city from 0-100 on 30 factors spread across five areas: stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. These numbers are then weighted and combined to produce an overall figure.

There are no great changes at the top of the ranking. Vienna, Melbourne and Toronto still occupy second, third and fourth positions behind Vancouver, and the top ten is still dominated by Canadian and Australian cities, which benefit in particular from perfect scores for health care and education.

These rankings are used by employers assigning hardship allowances as part of expatriate relocation packages. So you might be surprised by the position of a city such as Detroit, whose image has been rather battered in recent years. Yet in 40th place, it is considered a more liveable city than both London and New York in 54th and 56th positions. These two cities, which TimeOut ranks as the two “greatest” in the world , are tripped up by their “stability” scores. “Stability” reflects residents’ fear of terror, crime and conflict, and in this respect no city in the top 50 gets within ten points of New York’s score of 70.

Liveability ranking, 2010: 1 Vancouver 98; 2 Vienna 97.9; 3 Melbourne 97.5; 4 Toronto 97.2; 5 Calgary 96.6; 6 Helsinki 96.2; 7 Sydney 96.1; 8= Perth 95.9; 8= Adelaide 95.9; 10 Auckland 95.7