Melbourne is world’s most livable city for 7th straight year

A panoramic view of the Melbourne Docklands and the city skyline from Waterfront City, looking across Victoria Harbour. (Wikipedia Commons ,CC BY-SA 3.0)

SYDNEY — Melbourne in Australia was rated the world’s most livable city on Wednesday, for the seventh consecutive year.

The Economist Intelligence Unit in Britain measures the livability standards of 140 countries around the world each year, by comparing stability, culture and environmental conditions.

According to the report, the main reason Melbourne ranks so high is due to its strong healthcare, education and infrastructure scores, but the city’s low crime also helped to keep the top spot.

Victorian State minister for tourism John Eren, explained in a statement obtained by Xinhua, that “Victoria has the best of everything — big events, great schools and more jobs than anywhere in the country.”

“Every Melburnian knows that they’re living in the world’s greatest city — and this proves it yet again,” Eren added.

Coming in at second, third and fourth were Vienna, Vancouver, and Toronto respectively.

Another Australian city, Adelaide, took out fifth spot and Western Australia’s Perth was as high as seventh.

But the soaring cost of housing, along with the increasing threat of terrorism saw Sydney miss out on the top 10 for the second year in a row, to be ranked at 11th place.