Melburnians may be feeling a little cocky this morning, after the Victorian capital beat interstate rival Sydney in an age-old battle: Which city is more liveable.
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has released its Global Liveability Index for 2023 and Australian cities have made a major comeback after tumbling down the list last year.
Melbourne rocketed back up the list to third – below first-place Vienna and Copenhagen – and one spot ahead of Sydney in fourth.
Last year, Melbourne was ranked tenth and Sydney fell to 13th spot due to the slow lifting of Covid-19 restrictions and overwhelmed healthcare systems.
But this year, the Global Liveability Index 2023 report said the city’s “shift towards normality after the pandemic” helped them bounce back up the list.
“They have seen their scores in the healthcare category improve since last year, when they were still affected by Covid waves that stressed their healthcare systems,” the report read.
In 2023, the index ranked 173 cities based on more than 30 factors across five categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.
The average index store had improved to 76.2 out of 100 – up from 73.2 out of 100 last year – the highest score in 15 years, with healthcare recording the greatest improvement, thanks to much of the world moving beyond the strictures of the Covid pandemic.
Stability was the only factor to see a slight decline, but the report explained this was because of the belief that there was more corruption and civil unrest due to a cost of living crisis in several cities.
Melbourne and Sydney scored 100 in health, education and infrastructure, and 95 each in stability.
But what set the cities apart was their culture and environment score, with Victoria scoring 95.8 to Sydney’s 94.4 out of 100.
Fortunately, perhaps, affordability was not a factor to consider in the ranking, given the cities’ huge living costs.
Other Australian cities also made massive comebacks in the 2023 ranking.
Perth and Adelaide tied at 12th spot – moving 21 and 19 places, respectively – and Brisbane rose 11 spots to finish ranked 16th.
Three Canadian cities – Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto – two in Switzerland – Zurich and Geneva – Osaka in Japan, and Auckland across the ditch in New Zealand complete the top ten.
Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp was quick to crow about the ranking but said the city was eyeing off a return to the top spot – a position it held for seven straight years until 2017, before ranking second in 2019.
“From the most locked-down city to the world’s third-most liveable city is pretty darn good,” she said in a statement.
“It shows you can even throw anything at us, and we still have the incredible ability and resilience to bounce back.”
While celebrating she could not help but take a dig at the NSW capital, saying it was “cute to see Sydney nipping at our heels”.
Even Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the return to the top three was a sign that “Melbourne’s back, Victoria’s back” and there was “nowhere else like it”.
“I won’t take up the obvious opportunity to talk about other states in our nation, some of whom have had a lot to say about ‘luring business’,” he added, putting air quotes up for emphasis.
“Good luck with that, this [Melbourne/Victoria] is the centre of so many things that are important, and this is in every respect the real capital of our nation.”
It is unclear whether he was taking a dig at Sydney and NSW, but it can be presumed given the states’ endless tit-for-tat battle for bragging rights at any opportunity.
Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the massive comeback for the city proves “that Sydney is back” and has adjusted to life during the pandemic in a way that reflects an ability to make the best of any situation, The New Daily reports.