The World's 10 Most “Livable” Cities: Surprises and Controversies

Each year, a ranking of the world’s ten most livable cities inspires a combination of pride from people who live in those cities and confusion about how exactly those cities were deemed to be the best. The 2023 ranking recently came out and, as usual, European, Canadian, and Australian cities topped the list.

Keep Urbanity rolling:

[hugocast]

This video convinced me that we need a “Oh The Urbanity” index of most livable towns 😊

[kevley]

To be fair, I think Vienna definitely deserves a top spot. It has very good urbanism, great culture, low crime, while at the same time being incredibly affordible compared to other cities in the western world.

[FGHG]

I've always disliked "city ranking" articles that major news organizations and websites like Bloomberg, Forbes, WSJ, etc. routinely publish.
They always seem so out of touch with everyday ordinary people and their experiences, and absolutely NEVER include the perspectives of experts, urban planners, urbanists, much less YouTube urbanists, or even people who even live in those cities. Not to mention, they're almost always written from the perspective of transit-hostile, or transit-unfamiliar people who drive or are driven everywhere.

[pbilk]

In other words, this report is not for the average person and should almost mean nothing to the average person unless you work for these big companies.

[TheOnyxGemini]

Hello, I live in Watertown, MA, a suburb of Boston. I wanted to tell you about the abhorrent transit situation that the nearby city of Lynn has found itself in. The city has been building more densely around its commuter rail station, however, the MBTA has closed the station due to the disrepair of the building, even though it was built in 1991. A new station will not be done until 2030, which is absolutely ridiculous.
The city has urged the MBTA to build a temporary platform, which will take 12-18 months. Otherwise, they have to take a shuttle bus to Swampscot for the commuter rail or a shuttle to Revere for the Blue Line, which will take a long amount of time during rush hour. It's ridiculous that Lynn, which is the same distance to Boston and Brooklyn is to Manhattan, has no accessible transit to get to Boston. This is compounded by the fact of the large Latino and Black population in Lynn. This has also caused economic problems as building contractors to have densified around the station will suffer since young commuters will not move in without transit. This has led to a grocery store cancelling its plan to move into one of the buildings. I wanted to spread the news about this. If you want to see the full article, it's in the June 25th Boston Globe written by Joan Vennochi.

[NoctLightCloud]

I'm Austrian and I our capital city is cheap compared to our avg salaries. It's safe, clean, and beautiful.

[KJSvitko]

Cities need to do more to encourage people to ride bicycles. Safe protected bike lanes and trails are needed so adults and children can ride safely. Speak up for bicycles in your community. Bicycles make life and cities better. Ask your local transportation planner and elected officials to support more protected bike lanes and trails. Children should be riding a bicycle to school and not be driven in a minivan.

[CLMBRT]

I knew people would shit on Calgary. I've lived in both Montreal and Calgary is clear:) It's not only about cool urbanities, food trucks and bike lanes (and Calgary has a worldclass bike system). Calgary built an inclusive city, where families can thrive, young people afford a house and old people retire in peace with a nice view on the mountains :D

[lizcademy]

Back in the early 1990s (pre-Web) there was a paper book, Places Rated Almanac. It covered 350+ metro areas in the USA, and rated them on various livability factors. My then-husband and I found it very useful, but not complete.

For example, they scored highest the areas with very even, moderate climates — if I remember, San Francisco was #1 for climate. I prefer a 4 season climate and cold, snowy winters — I prefer Minneapolis weather to San Francisco! We also had other criteria that was not in the book (New York Times delivery, a good traditional bagel store).

In the long run, it's good that there's no ONE best city ... or it would be overrun with everyone trying to move there.

[ActiveTowns]

Thank you so much for decoding this perplexing livability index. This explains so much. 😊👍

[humanecities]

3:49 I walked down this exact street! It was way busier than this and there were 2 Italian guys yelling at each other from across the street 😂

[amac]

yeah spot on. there have been lots of stories of late of people who are now doing bedshare in sydney just to survive. Rents are so high that the are paying 50% of the room rent to share a bed. Usually one will be working during the day and the other has night job.

[polishtheday]

Thank you for explaining what’s behind the Economist’s liveable cities ranking. Every year a Canadian magazine publishes a “Best Cities for …” list. I’ve usually disagreed with their choice and have lived in a city that made the list one year. I hated the place. When I looked into some of the criteria they used to come up with the scores it was things like household income and the number of new cars owned in the city.

[wiesorix]

Great video! Very interesting to see how the agenda of the company making this list shpaes its outcomes, not something I would've thought of myself.

[rustyshackleford]

Antwerp is featured HEAVILY in this one and I love it. Antwerp has been my favorite city I've ever visited.

[mboatrightED]

This was extremely informative, thank you!

[howtomakedinner]

I’m in Toronto this weekend for my first visit since 2007. I’m pretty impressed with the bike share here! The TTC has always been super easy and smooth, but the bikes (and bike lanes) add a whole new super fun option for getting around. It’s almost enough to make me want to live here again!

[VulcanLogic]

Been a good week between you, notjustikes, adam something, citybeautiful, and citynerd.

[hugocast]

In my opinion, cost of living is part of quality of life. If every household around me needs to make € 100K to afford owning their home and a comfortable lifestyle, I find it reduces the social diversity of the place and only people in can truly thrive in those places.

I prefer to live in a smaller community with much lower CoL where people in the arts can live.

[TheTakenKing]

The thing is when I see Toronto on a 'most livable city' list and not Montreal, it makes me question the entire list regardless of whether I watched this video or not lol