Exactly one year ago (19 August 2015), I published my summary post on World’s most liveable cities 2015, Economist Intelligence Unit has just published their annual report for 2016 yesterday and here’s their new rankings.
Melbourne, again claimed the ‘crown’ although Vienna is only 0.1% ito Rating, ditto for Vancouver and Toronto sitting at 3rd and 4th. Unfortunately, this year saw Sydney dropped 4 places and out of the Top 10, said “due to heightened perceived terrorism threat (which I surmised was due to the unfortunate terrorist event at Martin Place cafe back in late 2014). Throughout the world, it’s sad to see many civil wars and terrorists’ related chaos, it’s those cities which were hit by these disasters were amongst the lowest ranked.
BBC also quoted EIU’s report re Great China rankings and it’s good to see that Hong Kong is still the top liveable city in Greater China. It also quoted that for Mainland China, Suzhou ranked top. I’m not surprised at all about this result when during my visit there last year, I experienced and love the recent and welcoming developments there including very efficient motorways and high speed rail, the numerous picturesque landscaping, e.g. around Jinji Lake, the many world-class shopping, commercial and exhibition/conventional complexes with generous and clean open areas for leisure/banqueting activities, and welcoming modern residential developments. I was told by my friends who lived there for more than 4 years and witnessed the developments and incoming new ‘migrants’, he knew of some very wealthy Taiwanese businessmen who migrated there from US snapping up huge modern apartments for his extended family.
Credits : Economist Intelligence Unit – A Summary of the Liveability Ranking and Overview, August 2016
BBC’s Chinese web: 智库公布全球宜居指数：大中华地区以香港居首