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While it is true that no place is perfect, I am proud that I lived in Toronto half of my life and will be living for the rest of it.
The Top 10 Most-Livable Cities in the World are......
1st MELBOURNE, Australia
2nd VIENNA, Austria
3rd VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada
4th TORONTO, Ontario, Canada
5th CALGARY, Alberta, Canada & ADELAIDE, Australia
7th SYDNEY, Australia
8th HELSINKI, Finland
9th PERTH, Australia
10th AUCKLAND, New Zealand
Read the full story written by Lesley Ciarula Taylor of Toronto Star. Photo provided by From A Traveller's Desk.
Not unlike the Olympics, Canada’s top city has won bronze in The Economist’s 2012 rankings of livable cities.
Vancouver, for nearly a decade the unassailable first-place city in the economics magazine, slid to third place in 2011 and stayed there this year in the semi-annual report.
Seven of the top 10 cities were in Canada and Australia, a strong reflection of what the newsmagazine considers livable: a mid-sized city that’s not congested, with a low murder rate, good transit and health care and decent recreation.
Melbourne, Australia claimed the top spot for the second year in a row, capitalizing on black marks against Vancouver for increased congestion.
Vancouver had put shovels in the ground to fix its traffic and transit woes, the magazine said, but the long-term gain comes with short-term disruption.
Vancouver and Toronto, which ranked fourth, outscored the other top 10 cities in stability and culture and environment but fell down in comparison on infrastructure (roads, transit, international links, housing and telecommunications).
All 10 of the most livable cities were closely ranked: the top four each collected 97 points out of 100 and even Auckland, New Zealand, in the 10th spot, had 95.7 points.
In fact, no city on the list for the top 65 locales has budged in the last six months, The Economist said.
Canada commanded three of the top 10 spots — Calgary tied with Adelaide, Australia, for 5th — and Sydney and Perth brought Australia’s total to four.
“Murder rates in Melbourne, Vienna (the Number 2 city) and Vancouver, were respectively 2.7, 1.1 and 2.5 per 100,000 people in 2010-11, compared with the American average of 4.8,” the magazine said.
The ranking, originally designed to determine if business executives needed hardship pay when working abroad, rates 140 cities considered business centres for their stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.
“American cities tend not to do as well as their Australian and Canadian counterparts because poor scores for crime and congestion negate their decent marks for culture,” the magazine said.
“New York, London, Paris and Tokyo are all prestigious hubs with a wealth of recreational activity but all suffer from higher levels of crime, congestion and public transport problems.”
The highest U.S. score went to Honolulu at 26th.
London and Manchester fell to 51st and 55th because of last summer’s riots, the magazine said. Dhaka stuck in last place because of poor health care and infrastructure.
Seven of the top 10 cities were in Canada and Australia, a strong reflection of what the newsmagazine considers livable: a mid-sized city that’s not congested, with a low murder rate, good transit and health care and decent recreation.
Melbourne, Australia claimed the top spot for the second year in a row, capitalizing on black marks against Vancouver for increased congestion.
Vancouver had put shovels in the ground to fix its traffic and transit woes, the magazine said, but the long-term gain comes with short-term disruption.
Vancouver and Toronto, which ranked fourth, outscored the other top 10 cities in stability and culture and environment but fell down in comparison on infrastructure (roads, transit, international links, housing and telecommunications).
All 10 of the most livable cities were closely ranked: the top four each collected 97 points out of 100 and even Auckland, New Zealand, in the 10th spot, had 95.7 points.
In fact, no city on the list for the top 65 locales has budged in the last six months, The Economist said.
Canada commanded three of the top 10 spots — Calgary tied with Adelaide, Australia, for 5th — and Sydney and Perth brought Australia’s total to four.
“Murder rates in Melbourne, Vienna (the Number 2 city) and Vancouver, were respectively 2.7, 1.1 and 2.5 per 100,000 people in 2010-11, compared with the American average of 4.8,” the magazine said.
The ranking, originally designed to determine if business executives needed hardship pay when working abroad, rates 140 cities considered business centres for their stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.
“American cities tend not to do as well as their Australian and Canadian counterparts because poor scores for crime and congestion negate their decent marks for culture,” the magazine said.
“New York, London, Paris and Tokyo are all prestigious hubs with a wealth of recreational activity but all suffer from higher levels of crime, congestion and public transport problems.”
The highest U.S. score went to Honolulu at 26th.
London and Manchester fell to 51st and 55th because of last summer’s riots, the magazine said. Dhaka stuck in last place because of poor health care and infrastructure.
Very nice blog. I like travel blogs. Keep it up.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kiran for your positive comments on my blog. It is appreciated.
DeleteGreat cities! I agree! How I wish at least 1 city from the Philippines made it to the top in the future! Hoping. : )
ReplyDeleteThanks Ric for visiting my post. I also wish Philippine cities are included on top in the near future. Would you give me at least one city that you have in mind?
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