The three Aussie cities among the top 10 in 2025's most liveable cities index
Australia is the only country in the world to secure three top 10 places in the newly published Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Index 2025.
When it comes to deciding where to live Australians have it better than any other country in the world, with three cities named among the top 10 most liveable in the world.
For more than two decades, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has released its Global Liveability Index, ranking 173 countries according to their credentials across 30 measures categorised into five key metrics: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.
Switzerland was the only other country with multiple cities in the top ten, while Copenhagen has supplanted Vienna at the top of the table in the list released on Tuesday (17 June).
Melbourne (4), Sydney (6) and Adelaide (9) now have bragging rights among Australia’s capital cities.
While the list generates some largely good-natured rivalry it also serves as an important evaluation tool evaluating living conditions in cities worldwide, identifying the best and worst places to live. The EIU points out that understanding the challenges that impact an individual’s lifestyle is crucial for businesses, governments, and academic institutions in shaping strategies and informing policies.
Adelaide’s ascendency has been dramatic, rising from 30th place in 2022 to 11th place last year.
It shared the same ratings as Melbourne and Sydney across all categories except culture and environment, where it still achieved a very respectable 91.4.
Melbourne reigned atop the list from 2011 to 2017. It dropped to eighth place in 2021 and tenth in 2022 but has now bounced back to be the highest ranked Australian city.
This year’s global average liveability score was 76.1.
Almost half of the top 20 places are located in East Asia and Australasia.
At the other end of the scale, the lowest ranked cites were Algiers, Karachi, Dhaka, Tripoli and last-placed Damascus.
Vienna’s displacement from top spot was based largely upon foiled terrorist attacks that undermined its stability score.
Only three cities in the top 20 have more than 6 million residents. London and New York are in 54th and 69th place respectively, with crime levels and the threat of terrorism high in those cities and the roads congested. Tokyo, the world’s largest city, ranks 13th.
Australian cities had slipped down the 2024 rankings due to the housing crisis but somehow avoided that fallout this year despite affordability and supply issues remaining.
While such lists attract inevitable attention and have some value in highlighting the quality of life on offer around the world, they have attracted criticism.
