Calgary ranked world's 5th most livable city by Economist Intelligence Unit
Sarah Rieger | CBC News | Posted: September 4, 2019 1:14 AM | Last Updated: September 4, 2019
3 Canadian cities made the top 10
Calgary has been ranked as the world's fifth most livable city, according to an annual ranking of 140 cities compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
That's down a spot from last year, but the city still boasts the same near-perfect score it did in 2018, coming in behind Osaka, Japan, and ahead of Vancouver and Toronto.
Vienna captured first place.
The index ranks cities for more than 30 quantitative and qualitative factors across five categories, with each ranking scored out of 100.
Here's how Calgary fared:
- Stability: 100.
- Health care: 100.
- Culture and environment: 90.
- Education: 100.
- Infrastructure: 100.
It's hard to know where Calgary lost points in the culture and environment category, which among other things weighs average weather conditions, sporting availability, and food and drink options.
In-house experts and in-city contributors weighed in to craft the score.
Climate change a growing variable
One big factor in this year's rankings is how different cities have responded to climate change.
"Sydney has risen from fifth to third, thanks to an improvement in its culture and environment score, reflecting an increased focus on combating and mitigating the impacts of climate change," the index's findings state.
"A slew of cities in emerging markets that are among the most exposed to the effects of climate change have seen their scores downgraded … A lack of a concerted global effort to tackle climate change risks further downward revisions in these scores, threatening to offset improvements in the other categories, such as education and infrastructure, which remain on a broadly upward trend."