Osaka and Tokyo Join World’s Top 10 Most Livable Cities

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) announced that the Japanese city of Osaka ranked third, and Tokyo seventh in the August 2018 edition of The Economist magazine’s Global Livability Ranking. The Austrian capital Vienna was the star of the rankings as this is the first time a European city has topped the chart since the survey began in 2004. Melbourne kept the top seat for seven consecutive years until last year, and dropped to second place with 98.4 points.

Every year, the EIU rankings comprehensively evaluate 140 cities around the world based on the five criteria of political and economic stability, healthcare, transportation infrastructure, education, and culture and environment. The maximum number of points that can be awarded is 100 points.

The top-positioned Vienna had a near perfect score of 99.1 points followed by Melbourne with 98.4 and Osaka with 97.7. Tokyo and Toronto tied for seventh place with 97.2 points each.

The 2018 Top 10 Most Livable Cities in the World

Compiled by Nippon.com based on EIU data.

Australia and Canada have three cities each in the top 10, while Japan and Europe have two each. Especially for Austria and Japan, the EIU cited the low number of murder cases as one of the reasons for their high marks.

The EIU noted that many medium-sized cities in wealthy countries were near the top of the list. Infrastructure problems, high crime rates, and congestion are cited as reasons why centers of international business like Paris (nineteenth place), London (forty-eighth place), and New York (fifty-seventh place) did not get higher scores.