Vancouver has lost its solid grip on the top-three spot it has occupied for many years in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual global livability rankings – and, in a double blow, has been beaten by Calgary.
The EIU’s Global Liveability Rankings 2018, released August 14 (downloadable from here), placed Vancouver in sixth, with 97.3 out of 100 points.
However, the city’s score has not reduced, and it is considered by the EIU to be just as livable as last year. The exact same score was enough to put it in third place in 2017, but three cities have leapfrogged Vancouver’s score in 2018, Calgary among them.
The EIU report said, “It must be noted that ranking movements do not necessarily arise from a change in liveability in the cities themselves, but reflect how cities compare with one another… Changes in liveability elsewhere can have a significant impact on the rankings of individual cities.”
Vienna in Austria and Melbourne in Australia have switched spots at the top, now respectively in first and second place, with Osaka, Japan jumping six places to third spot, Calgary in fourth with 97.5 points and Sydney, Australia in fifth place.
Vancouver did manage to beat out Toronto, however, which tied for seventh place with Tokyo.
In 2017, Calgary had 96.6 points and was in fifth place after Vancouver. The EIU said, “Upwards movement in the top-ranked cities is a reflection of improvements seen in stability and safety across most regions in the past year.” However, the specific reason for Calgary’s additional livability points was not reported.
Vancouver’s slide from the global top five comes as another blow to the city’s pride, following recent livability rankings of Canadian cities, in which Vancouver placed a paltry 88th.