Adelaide 5th in world Quality of living survey.

[Cam]

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/s ... 10,00.html

Vienna topped the 2009 Worldwide Quality of Living Survey, but Australia fared well with Sydney placed 10th, Melbourne 18th, Perth 21st, Adelaide 30th and Brisbane 34th

http://www.mercer.com/qualityofliving

* European cities dominate the top of the ranking
* Vienna scores highest for overall quality of living, Baghdad the lowest
* Singapore ranks top for city infrastructure; London ranks eighth

The quality of living rankings are based on a point-scoring index, which sees Vienna score 108.6, and Baghdad 14.4. Cities are ranked against New York as the base city with an index score of 100.

Vienna no. 1:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna

[Shuz]

Melbourne's gone a fair way downhill. Wasn't it number 2 only a few years ago?

[Wayno]

There's a few companies that do these surveys - and they tend to use slightly different ranking & weighting schemes. Anywhere in the top 50 is fantastic. Think about it - there's thousands of cities worldwide.

We don't really appreciate what we got...

[adam73837]

There's a few companies that do these surveys - and they tend to use slightly different ranking & weighting schemes. Anywhere in the top 50 is fantastic. Think about it - there's thousands of cities worldwide.

We don't really appreciate what we got...

I agree, considering the number of cities around the world, Adelaide did very well. However take note:

Sydney placed 10th, Melbourne 18th, Perth 21st, Adelaide 30th and Brisbane 34th

It is interesting that while we rank high in the world, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth are all in front of us, yet in Adelaide we boast that we have "the best lifestyle in Australia" and so on and so forth. We criticise Melbourne and Sydney for having 'lots of concrete' , yet the world perceives them as better places to live than us. I'm not saying that Adelaide isn't a desirable place to live, I enjoy living here and since we're 30th out of 1000s, we must be good, but whenever someone interstate says something about Adelaide, everyone goes into a huge defence and loses their minds. I'm not saying that what the Lord Mayor of Melbourne said was acceptable, that episode's an exception, but rather than getting all arrogant towards people from interstate, perhaps we should actually consider what they say.

I am aware that this post will receive criticism (and Wayno, I expect a Batman picture by stating this -that was a good one BTW ), however know that while I have a greater appreciation of what the cities interstate have to offer, I was born and raised in Adelaide and I will always call it home.

BTW, yes Shuz, Melbourne has been rated the "World's Most Liveable City" by several surveys of International Cities. For those of you who don't believe me and want a reference, get your hands on a copy of Great Cities of the World -Melbourne. It's a medium sized, very slim green book with a picture taken from Southbank looking across the Yarra towards Flinders Street Station to and the buildings behind it.

[Wayno]

yes, Adam373745678574 deserves a slap in the opposite direction.

batslapper-opposite.JPG (14.2 KiB) Viewed 6141 times

[AtD]

This was covered in SSC, and as I posted in there, surveys like these are junk statistics because you need to somehow mathematically compare diverse and unrelated subjective measures. A 10 minute commute is somehow worth 50ppm of air pollutant X, $100 of average income or three murders per 100,000 population. Balls.

They're usually published by an organisation with an agenda to push or a profile to raise.

[Cam]

A Pristine water supply is a start.

Nearly all of Vienna's drinking water is brought to the city via two large water pipelines, built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The pipelines stretch 120 km (75 miles) and 200 km (124 miles) from the Alps to the city's Hietzing district. The Alpine sources are pristine and the water does not require treatment.

source: Vienna Wiki

[peas_and_corn]

Adelaide's tap water shouldn't change- it's perfect for brewing ales with!

[monotonehell]

Adelaide's tap water shouldn't change- it's perfect for brewing ales with!

It's also good for coffee. Pristine water doesn't work so well, you need a little impurity to make the coffee taste good.

See we already have it all over these Viennese! Gooood coffee is everything.

[Wayno]

9th now...

I know, i know, lots of flaws in these comparisons. Good to be top 10 though!! provides us with exposure if nothing else...

From The Economist:

It's Vancouver, again
PLUS ça change. Vancouver is still the most liveable city in the world, according to the latest annual index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The Canadian city, which is currently gearing up to host the Winter Olympics, gets 98 points out of 100, the same as last year.

The ranking scores each city from 0-100 on 30 factors spread across five areas: stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. These numbers are then weighted and combined to produce an overall figure.

There are no great changes at the top of the ranking. Vienna, Melbourne and Toronto still occupy second, third and fourth positions behind Vancouver, and the top ten is still dominated by Canadian and Australian cities, which benefit in particular from perfect scores for health care and education.

These rankings are used by employers assigning hardship allowances as part of expatriate relocation packages. So you might be surprised by the position of a city such as Detroit, whose image has been rather battered in recent years. Yet in 40th place, it is considered a more liveable city than both London and New York in 54th and 56th positions. These two cities, which TimeOut ranks as the two “greatest” in the world , are tripped up by their "stability" scores. "Stability" reflects residents’ fear of terror, crime and conflict, and in this respect no city in the top 50 gets within ten points of New York’s score of 70.

Liveability ranking, 2010: 1 Vancouver 98; 2 Vienna 97.9; 3 Melbourne 97.5; 4 Toronto 97.2; 5 Calgary 96.6; 6 Helsinki 96.2; 7 Sydney 96.1; 8= Perth 95.9; 8= Adelaide 95.9; 10 Auckland 95.7

[monotonehell]

Somethings else to notice; the range of scores between top and tenth there are only 95.7 to 98%, so Adelaide's pretty much the same as Vangoober; Melb, Syd, Perth and Adel are in there, Australian cities have a high representation.

[Wayno]

Adelaide now equal 5th.

Again good exposure if nothing else. Luv that these stats are currently in all major newspapers australia-wide.

The world's top 10 most liveable cities (and Brisbane):

• 1. Melbourne, Australia.
  2. Vienna, Austria.
  3. Vancouver, Canada.
  4. Toronto, Canada.
  5. Calgary, Canada.
  5. (equal) Adelaide, Australia.
  7. Sydney, Australia.
  8. Helsinki, Finland.
  9. Perth, Australia.
  10. Auckland, New Zealand.
  .
  .
  .
  20. Brisbane, Australia.

ADELAIDE has overtaken Sydney as one of the world's most liveable cities, with recent major infrastructure boosting its international profile, according to a new global survey.

However, Melbourne outperformed 140 rivals to receive the Global Liveability Survey gong for a second year in a row with a near perfect score of 97.5 per cent. It only lost points for climate, culture and petty crime.

Sydney dropped one place to seventh position despite an unchanged score, while Adelaide rocketed three places to joint fifth thanks to infrastructure improvements.

Perth was ninth, down one place.

Economist Intelligence Unit survey editor Jon Copestake said just 1.6 percentage points separated the five Aussie cities surveyed.

''Australian cities continue to thrive in terms of liveability not only do they benefit from the natural advantages of low population density, but they have continued to improve with some high profile infrastructure investments,'' Mr Copestake said from London.

''In Adelaide, projects completed in recent years under the Strategic Infrastructure Plan for South Australia have been enough to move the city above Sydney, whose score is unchanged.

''Melbourne may claim national bragging rights (in topping the rankings), but four of the five Australian cities surveyed are in the top 10 of the global index, and are separated by just 1.6 percentage points."

Elsewhere in the world the impact of the Arab Spring, and the fallout from the Euro zone crisis, are still being felt.

Many cities in the Middle East and North Africa have seen downward revisions of their scores due to civil unrest.

The ongoing civil war in Syria saw the capital, Damascus, fall furthest as violence intensified, dropping 13 places to 130th and into the very bottom tier of liveability with a score of 46.3 per cent.

London, which recently hosted the Olympic Games, saw a drop in score as a result of riots that took place in the UK last year, causing it to fall two places to 55th in the ranking.

Dhaka in Bangladesh has the unenviable title of being the least liveable location surveyed.

The global liveability report surveys 140 locations around the world to assess the best or the worst living conditions.

It originated as a means of testing whether human resource departments needed to assign a hardship allowance as part of expatriate relocation packages.

It has since evolved as a broad benchmarking tool used by city councils, organisations or corporate entities looking to test locations against one another.

Cities are scored on political and social stability, crime rates and access to quality health care.

It also measures the diversity and standard of cultural events and the natural environment; education (school and university); and the standard of infrastructure, including public transport.

[Maximus]

Curious that Melbourne "lost points for culture", seeing as it's allegedly the cultural capital of Australia (self-proclaimed, perhaps). It'd be interesting to read the full report, but I'm not quite prepared to stump up the $325 required to purchase...

[crawf]

I guess they don't include public transport then............

[dsriggs]

Curious that Melbourne "lost points for culture", seeing as it's allegedly the cultural capital of Australia

Other countries' culture doesn't count