Auckland has been named the world's most liveable city by The Economist Intelligence Unit, unseating Austrian capital Vienna which topped the list in 2019.
Life is good down under
The ranking takes into account 30 variables across five major categories; stability, health care, culture and environment, education and infrastructure, as well as some new indicators for this year about the handling of the pandemic.
With just 26 total confirmed COVID deaths in the entire country, it's no surprise that Auckland and Wellington, the largest and third largest cities in New Zealand, fared particularly well in this year's ranking. Joining them in the top 10 were 4 cities in Australia; Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth, all of which benefitted from top marks in education and solid scores in healthcare.
Only Geneva and Zurich managed to break into the top 10 from Europe, as other Western countries fared a lot worse this year. Canada, which had Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto all make the top 10 in 2019, didn't have any cities in the top 10. Elsewhere, London came 59th on the index, just one spot ahead of New York.
