The study by the British “Economist” group has been published and presents the new ranking of the 172 most liveable cities in the world, which were compared according to criteria such as health care, culture, environment, education and infrastructure.
During the Corona pandemic, the city ranking looked quite different. Due to the severe lockdowns, German, but also many other European metropolises lost many places. After the lockdowns, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Düsseldorf each rose 30 places, making them the biggest winners in the year-on-year comparison. While Frankfurt moved close behind the winning city of Vienna to seventh place, Hamburg is in 16th place and Düsseldorf in 22nd. Munich and Berlin also moved into the top 20.
Cities with high vaccination rates in particular managed to grab top spots, but the improvements can also be attributed to openings of restaurants, shops and other leisure activities. The return of children to schools and the easing of pressure on hospitals and the health system also have a positive impact on the stability of cities and countries and thus on their rankings. Most of the highly ranked German cities scored well on infrastructure and health care, while they did not score in the top group for factors related to the security situation, such as education and stability. Frankfurt scored the full 100 points for both health and infrastructure, while scoring 91.7 points in the education category.
Vienna, as previously mentioned, was named the winner of this year’s study, followed by Copenhagen and Zurich. Two Canadian cities, Calgary and Vancouver, also landed in the top five.
During the Corona pandemic, metropolises in New Zealand, Australia and China were seen leading the way, but this changed again with worldwide relaxations. Not only these metropolises continue to drop, but also Eastern European and especially Russian cities, which score poorly in the stability aspect. Due to the attack on Ukraine, cities such as Warsaw and Budapest were downgraded due to their geopolitical location, while Kiev was even removed from the ranking altogether. Moscow and St. Petersburg were downgraded in the ranking due to losses in the stability category, among other things. Cities marked by terrorism and violent conflicts, such as Damascus, Lagos and Tehran, are at the bottom of the ranking.
According to the authors of the study, however, the effects of the Ukraine war will pose a major risk to the quality of life everywhere in the coming months. Rising energy and food prices could trigger conflicts and the cost crisis will also curb investments in education, infrastructure and health systems in particular. Western European cities are still rising in the rankings, but further developments remain to be seen.
Graphics: Stern
Cover Image: Unsplash
