The people who run the Global Liveability Index have come out with an exhaustive ranking of world cities.
The top ten list is dominated by Europe and Australia, but Canada placed four cities in the top 20, which is nothing to sneeze at.
According to Time Out, The Global Liveability Index rated more than 170 world cities based on five major factors. They are stability (such as the threat of conflict or prevalence of petty crime); healthcare (availability of over-the-counter drugs, quality of public healthcare); culture and environment (temperatures, levels of censorship); education (availability and quality of private education) and infrastructure (quality of road networks, public transport and water provision).
Here’s the Global Liveability Group’s top 10:
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Vienna, Austria (first last year)
- Zurich, Switzerland (actually tied for second)
- Melbourne, Australia
- Geneva, Switzerland
- Sydney, Australia
- Osaka, Japan
- Auckland, New Zealand
- Adelaide, Australia
- Vancouver, Canada
Copenhagen, Denmark. Nick Karvounis/Unsplash Photo
For those of you keeping score at home, that’s four European cities in the top 10 and three from Australia, a country I love dearly.
Other Canadian cities:
16. Toronto (down from 12th last year)
18. Calgary (down sharply from fifth last year, partly due to health care issues)
19. Montreal (up from 23rd last year).
That puts four Canadian cities in the top 20, which is quite good.
The U.S. didn’t fare so well. The top city in the States in the 2025 Global Liveability Ranking was Honolulu, Hawaii, a terrific, multicultural city on the island of O’ahu that finished in the 23rd spot.
The Calgary Peace Bridge
Other U.S. cities I spotted on the list were Miami and Portland, Oregon, both in the 44th spot, as well as Indianapolis and Charlotte, which were tied for 50th.
The bottom 10? I thought you’d never ask.
164. Caracas, Venezuela
165. Kyiv, Ukraine
166. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
167. Harare, Zimbabwe
168. Lagos, Nigeria
169. Algiers, Algeria
170, Karachi, Pakistan
171. Dhaka, Bangladesh
172. Tripoli, Libya
173. Damascus, Syria
