Say it ain’t so! The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)’s annual livability index has been released for 2018, and for the first time in seven years (!) Melbourne is not at the top.
We’ve been ranked second in 2018, being beaten to the top spot by none other than the Austrian city of Vienna. Vienna has officially broken Melbourne’s seven-year record as the EIC’s most liveable city. Although both Melbourne and Vienna registered improved livability over the last year, Vienna increased further in the stability category enough for it to overtake Melbourne.
The Economist's liveability index measures cities based on a number of factors, including stability, healthcare, education, culture, environment and infrastructure. If it makes you feel any better, there was only 0.7 of a percentage point separating us from the top spot, with Vienna scoring a near-perfect 99.1 and Melbourne scoring 98.4. We scored 100 on healthcare, education and infrastructure, with culture and environment at 98.6 and stability at 95.
(Psst, if you're curious, we've picked the 13 best things to do in Vienna if you feel like a holiday is on the cards).
Two other Australian cities managed to make it into the top ten of the survey as well, with Sydney landing in fifth place and Adelaide at tenth. The rest of the top ten featured Osaka (third), Calgary (fourth), Vancouver (sixth), Toronto and Tokyo at equal seventh and Copenhagen in ninth place.
While we’re bummed about the loss of title, we shouldn’t dwell. Instead, let’s get out there and explore the very best that this city has to offer right now. Might we suggest this fun high cheese event or the incredible MoMA exhibition at the NGV? Or how about the excellent food and world-class bars we’ve got? Lest we forget that we’ll be the third city in the world to put on the five-star Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play. Yeah, look, we’ll be fine.