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Are You Living in a Liveable City?

It's an annual survey. Which cities on this planet of ours are the most liveable? Of course, the result is dependant on all sorts of factors - and who the persons polled were. But, in the end all cities vie for recognition as the most liveable city in the world.

The result for 2009 are in - as AHN reports, here:

"Vancouver, the capital city of British Columbia, topped the list of the Economist Intelligence Unit's global liveability survey covering 140 cities around the world. Vancouver registered a 98 percent score out of a perfect 100 standard.

It was followed by Vienna in Austria and Melbourne in Australia. A second Canadian city, Toronto - the capital of Ontario - ranked fourth. It went up from a sixth place finish last year. It was followed by Perth in Australia and Calgary in Canada. The other top-ranked cities are Helsinki in Finland, Sydney in Australia and Zurich and Geneva in Switzerland.

The ranking is based on an assessment of living conditions by rating relative comfort using 30 qualitative and quantitative parameters from five broad categories. The categories are: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.

On the opposite end is the capital city of Zimbabwe, Harare, which has been suffering from mega-inflation rates the past years. Majority of the cellar dwellers are Asian and African cities. Manila, the capital city of the Philippines, placed 108th, New Delhi in India was at 114th ranking and Nairobi in Kenya landed on the 122nd spot.

On the average, the global mean was 76.1 percent. Cities in Western Europe had the highest average at 92.2 percent, followed North American cities with 91.5 percent. Sub-Saharan African cities got a 51 percent average.

The EIU, which publishes The Economist, said it was not surprised by the results of the survey, particularly the high scores of Western European and North American cities "given the implied stability and mature infrastructures offered by the two regions."

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