The latest Global Liveability Index has been released, and Asian cities have shown significant improvement. Let’s see how your city ranks.
Originating as a Viking fishing village, Copenhagen, the city with more bikes than residents, has once again been named the world’s most liveable city according to the recently released Global Liveability Index. The Danish capital has successfully retained its top position, outperforming Vienna and Melbourne to earn perfect scores in education, infrastructure, and stability.
Widely known as a pioneer in sustainable living, Copenhagen’s ‘Copenhagenisation’ has inspired cities worldwide to adopt bicycle culture.
The people-first urban planning approach of Denmark’s capital helped it clinch the top spot in the annual index. The index, compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), evaluates 173 cities based on five factors: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.
Switzerland is the only other European country with cities in the top 10, represented by Zurich and Geneva in fifth and sixth places respectively. Japan’s Osaka and Tokyo make the top 10 as well, whilst Australia is represented by Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide. The highest-ranked UK city is Manchester, coming in at 52nd.
The main themes of this year’s index include static liveability scores in Europe and enhancements in Asian cities.
Despite Western Europe still being the region with the highest liveability scores, the average score in the 2026 index remained static, while Asia’s average score showed an increase. Now, the top 20 includes nine Asian cities and seven European cities.
Improvements were noted even in cities at the bottom of the index. For instance, Damascus, the Syrian capital and lowest-ranked city, witnessed remarkable healthcare improvements since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Likewise, Libya’s Tripoli also experienced advancements in the healthcare sector, even though it remains the second-lowest-ranked city.
The aftermath of the Iran war caused a dip in the rankings of many Middle Eastern cities. However, the region continued to see improvements in specific sectors, especially healthcare.
Health is a recurring theme in the latest index which recorded substantial improvements in the healthcare scores of Chinese cities due to public investment. This has resulted in Chinese cities dominating the list of cities with the most significant upward movement this year, led by Fuzhou, a southeast-based industrial city. However, restrictions on political freedoms keep culture and environment scores low in most Chinese cities, limiting their rankings.
Another city that witnessed a substantial improvement in the index is New York, USA, due to years of declining crime rates and lower terrorist attack risks. Yet, it still comes third from the bottom among US cities, behind Detroit and Lexington.
The most liveable cities, according to the EIU
1. Copenhagen, Denmark
2. Vienna, Austria
3. Melbourne, Australia
4. Sydney, Australia
5. Zurich, Switzerland
6. Geneva, Switzerland
7. Osaka, Japan
8. Adelaide, Australia
9. Vancouver, Canada
10. Tokyo, Japan
The least liveable cities, according to the EIU
1. Damascus, Syria
2. Tripoli, Libya
3. Dhaka, Bangladesh
4. Karachi, Pakistan
5. Algiers, Algeria
6. Lagos, Nigeria
7. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
8. Kyiv, Ukraine
9. Harare, Zimbabwe
10. Tehran, Iran
The biggest movers up the rankings
1. Fuzhou, China (rank: 93)
2. Lisbon, Portugal (54)
3. Wuxi, China (106)
4. Nanjing, China (98)
5. Zhuhai, China (105)
6. Qingdao, China (114)
7. Tokyo, Japan (10)
8. New York, US (66)
9. Shenyang, China (84)
10. Dalian, China (101)
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