Calgary is the seventh most liveable city in the world, tied with Geneva, but falling from third one year ago, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) 2023 Liveability Index..“With COVID restrictions diminished, the 2023 survey (conducted between February 13 and March 12) shows a noticeable improvement across the world,” said the EIU in a Thursday report. .“The average index score across all 172 cities (excluding Kyiv) in our survey has now reached 76.2 out of 100, up from 73.2 a year ago.” .The report said Calgary received a 96.8/100 score. It found Calgary scored 100/100 on stability, healthcare, education, and infrastructure, but it earned an 87.3 for culture and environment. .Calgary’s stability score went up because anti-vaccine protests have ended. .The report went on to say Vienna came in first place with a 98.4/100 score. It had similar ratings to Calgary on all categories except culture and environment, where it scored higher at 93.5/100. .Vienna slipped down the rankings in 2021 when its famous museums and restaurants faced COVID-19 restrictions, but it was a rare slip-up for a city which has been on top in eight of the past 10 surveys. EIU said it “continues to offer an unsurpassed combination of stability, good infrastructure, strong education and healthcare services, and plenty of culture and entertainment, with one of its few downsides being a relative lack of major sporting events.” .Second place went to Copenhagen (97.8/100). Copenhagen kept its position from the same place in 2022 because of similar reasons to Vienna. .Third and fourth place went to Melbourne (97.7) and Sydney (97.4). Melbourne and Sydney have seen their scores in the healthcare category improve since last year, when they were affected by the system being stressed by COVID-19 waves. .Vancouver was the highest performing Canadian city, finishing in fifth place (97.3). Vancouver’s stability score went up because anti-lockdown protests are not happening anymore. .Zurich came in sixth place (97.1). Zurich’s education score has risen in the last year. .The city placing behind Calgary and Geneva was Toronto (96.5). Rounding out the top ten was a tie between Osaka and Auckland (96). .The report continued by saying these are the highest scores for the original comparable list of 140 cities. Healthcare scores have improved the most, with smaller gains for education, culture and environment, and infrastructure. .Stability has seen a small decline, reflecting increasing perceptions of corruption and civil unrest in many cities amid a cost of living crisis and an uptick in crime in some of them. .The report said the worst city in the world was Damascus (30.7). It said Damascus received a 20 in stability, 29.2 in healthcare, 40.5 in culture and environment, 33.3 in education, and 32.1 in infrastructure. .Subsequent to Damascus was Tripoli (40.1). This was followed by Algiers (42), Lagos (42.2), and Karachi (42.5). .Contrary to these improvements, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the resulting economic and political disruption are affecting liveability in many European cities. This was most noticeable in Kyiv. .“However, the city’s score has fallen by 5.9 percentage points since 2021, owing to the damage the war has done to its stability, infrastructure and general liveability,” said EIU.
