Melbourne Ousts Vancouver as Top Place to Live

Australia and Canada dominate the list
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 30, 2011 2:21 PM CDT
Melbourne Ousts Vancouver as Top Place to Live
A boat speeds past the Melbourne skyline.   (Getty Images)

Dear readers, we have a question for you: Why don’t you live in Canada or Australia? Because apparently those are the world’s bestest places to live, according to an annual study from the Economist Intelligence Unit, which rates cities from around the world based on factors like political stability, health care, culture, education, and infrastructure. The big news this year is that Melbourne has broken Vancouver’s almost decade-long reign atop the list, the AAP reports.

But don’t go crying for Vancouver—it fell only to third. The real story, Time observes, is the dominance of Australia and Canada respectively, which account for a whopping seven of the top 10. Those 10 are as follows:

  1. Melbourne, Australia
  2. Vienna, Austria
  3. Vancouver, Canada
  4. Toronto, Canada
  5. Calgary, Canada
  6. Sydney, Australia
  7. Helsinki, Finland
  8. Perth, Australia
  9. Adelaide, Australia
  10. Auckland, New Zealand
As for the dregs of the list, Harare, Zimbabwe, has the dubious distinction of being dead last of the 140 cities ranked, just below Dhaka, Bangladesh. Other notable bottom-feeders include Tripoli (135), Karachi, (134) and Tehran (132). Honolulu (26) is the top US city on the list. (More lists stories.)

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