Sydney has dropped in the global liveable cities rankings (but the results may surprise you)

In news that will surprise no Sydneysider who has brought up the cost-of-living crisis in the last convo they had (so, pretty much all of us): Sydney has fallen in the global rankings of “most liveable cities”. After all, it was just confirmed we’re living in the second most expensive place in all of the world to buy a home. What may surprise you, though, is that our city has also maintained its status within the top-ten most liveable cities, comparative to other places throughout the world. Last year, Sydney placed fourth in the world in this same Index – and this year, we’ve dropped down to equal seventh with Vancouver (another city with a drop-dead gorgeous harbour), due to a decreased infrastructure score.

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU’s) annual Global Liveability Index results are in for 2024, and this year Melbourne has settled in to Sydney’s previous fourth position (they also dropped from last year – but by just one spot from their 2023 ranking).

"We have downgraded overall infrastructure scores for Australia, owing to an ongoing housing crisis that has led to an all-time low availability of rental properties in many of the cities," the Economist Intelligence Unit said. We don’t need an intelligence unit to tell us that.

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The infrastructure scores for Melbourne and Sydney were equal: at 96.4 out of a possible 100. Sydney and Melbourne also had the same scores for healthcare (100), education (100) and stability (95).

However, Melbourne gained some ground on Sydney when it came to environment and culture.

We would hope that the work being done to amp up the volume of affordable housing, the August launch of the new Sydney Metro fast-rail service, and the new special entertainment zones that will be a boost for Sydney’s cultural landscape, will all go towards helping to make Sydney a more liveable city – not just on paper via an official Index, but IRL. 

Austria’s Vienna was deemed the most liveable city in the world for the third year in a row, while Denmark’s Copenhagen came in the number-two spot, followed by Switzerland’s Zurich. Euro cities taking the top three spots checks out with a lot of other related ranking results in recent times.

Three other Australian cities made it into the top 20, with Adelaide placing 11th, Perth 15th and Brisbane 16th.

Here are the top ten cities on the 2024 EIU Global Liveability Index:

1. Vienna, Austria
2. Copenhagen, Denmark
3. Zurich, Switzerland
4. Melbourne, Australia
5. Calgary, Canada
6. Geneva, Switzerland
7. Sydney, Australia
8. Vancouver, Canada
9. Osaka, Japan
10. Auckland, New Zealand

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