Covid-related complications have seen Australia’s cities plummet in the global liveability rankings, with Melbourne the highest rated city coming in at 10th.
Adelaide, which came 2nd outright last year, staggeringly dropped to 30th, while Perth fell 26 spots to 32nd. Brisbane overtook the city of lights, but still dropped 17 positions to 27th. Last year’s winner, Auckland, fell to 34th, while Wellington dropped to 50th from 4th last year.
Melbourne held the crown from 2011 to 2017 until it was beaten by Vienna a year later. Vienna was again named the world’s most liveable city for 2022, with Copenhagen and Zurich rounding out the podium. Melbourne rates highly for its education and infrastructure but sits well behind the top 10 in the healthcare stakes.
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) analysed over 170 cities for this year’s rankings, with the effects of the pandemic still being felt in a number of metropolitan areas. Cities in western Europe climbed up the charts, mainly due to the removal of covid restrictions. The cities are assessed on their stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.
The reason for the decline in rankings for the Australian cities is attributed to high liveability through the pandemic in 2021, with border closures and soft restrictions in effect. Given the lockdowns and some restrictions remaining in place, the decline has been sharp.
RMIT Centre for Urban Research Professor Billie Giles-Corti believes the healthcare rating is skewed.
"Austria only has about eight million people, Australia has 25 million and they've had 20,000 (covid-realted) deaths, (while) we've had 9,000 deaths," she tells the ABC.
"If covid is a factor that's contributing to our lower ranking in healthcare, our figures are so much better. I think one of the things that's really missing out of this index is how sustainable cities are and the ecological footprint of Vienna is much lower than Melbourne's, because it has more public transport.
"We have people living on the fringe of our city with no amenity, to me that's more important than this index."
To read the Global Liveability Index in full, click here.
Image: Fender Katsalidis
