Melbourne named world's most liveable city; Tokyo 18th

Good news for Australians and not so bad news for others. "Home is where i want to be!"

My home town ranked 10th but Tokyo where i live ranked 18th, I would much rather live in Tokyo though.

Lower crime rate, people have better attitudes, public tranport is great , fantastic night life, shopping is great, tokyo has so much more to offer for someone like me.

I saw Melbourne on tv, have you seen "Underbelly"? Airport is too far from the centre, not a good thing when you consider Australia is so vast that flying is a necessity. Vienna is great if you are not "coloured". Singapore 52nd?

Used to live in Melbourne but didn't like it that much. 4 seasons in one day, sweltering heat in summer, it is far to go to a good beach, St. Kilda sucks. Nowadays, racism seems to be a big problem there. I'd rather live in Sydney.

For a sports nut, Melbourne is THE sports capital of the world. 100,000 people regularly turn up for Aussie rules and cricket games, 150,000 plus for horse racing. Very clean and green city too with loads of parks compared to similar big cities. Weather is too variable for me though...and it's waaaayy to expensive (almost as bad as Sydney). I'm sure I couldn't afford to pay rent, eat out, go for drinks there - so I will stay in Japan!

The quote saying low density might be a positive for us westerners since our dense cities tend to be nasty cause people are so obnoxious. But in places like Japan, Korea and Taiwan the high density is not a problem at all, I actually prefer it because of how convenient life is and compact everything is and yet clean. I am assuming Tokyo ranked low (still higher than anything in the US though and the 2nd largest megalopolis [new york, paris, tokyo, london]) is probably because of the political stability.

To be honest I would choose Paris and Tokyo over any of the top 10 cities anyday (and yes I have been to Canada and Australia, I also studied in Canada for 2 semesters).

No Fukuoka? That was supposed to be the most liveable city in the whole of Asia a couple of years ago....

lucabrasi; Rubbish guide, surely Coventry should be in the top 5.

This is the The Economist's World's Most Liveable Cities survey , one of three most esteemed world's most livable cities indices

Singapore 52nd?

Lee Kuan Yew: NO FUN ALLOWED!

New Zealand’s Auckland (tenth)

proves that reliability of public transportation or its existence was not a weighed factor for this year's index

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_most_livable_cities

Osaka 12th, Tokyo..18th

Now I'm starting to suspect that human beings had a limited role in the data collection process.

Also I would rate japanese cities like Fukuoka, Sapporo, and Nagoya ahead of Tokyo for quality of life...maybe even Kyoto (since they like lower density and all)...and yet those cities are not even in the list despite the fact their metro populations are about the same as the cities in the top 10...

@Steve

Rubbish guide, surely Coventry should be in the top 5.

Ha! Not even in the top 5 in the West Midlands, I'm afraid....

Agreed with CharlieCard - Kyoto over Tokyo EVERY day of the week!

MELBOURNE!!?? WORLDS MOST LIVEABLE CITY!!!???? What A Joke!!!

Did the Melbourne city council pay for this study to be done???

I am amazed. Wow. Shocked and blown away.

Worst crime rates in Australia, constantly raining and overcrowded. All the refugees live there and it is a breeding ground for crime. Lower wages, very old buildings (some call this culture, but I call it a decomposing wasteland), well, I dont know where to start except I will never go there again, and will strongly advise against everybody else from doing so.

Everywhere else BUT melbourne is generally a nice place to live in Australia IMHO.

Melbourne is an awesome city, but in a bad year the flies that come in from the desert are pretty unbearable if you're not used to them.

Glad Canada did well... maybe I should return one of these days as this country is going to the dogs. I can't see how Tokyo, being the most expensive city in the world, as well as one of the most congested, can rank as high as 18th, save that it has pretty much every convenience you can think of.

Studied in Melbourne for 3 years. Loved the place to bits; including its erratic weather.

I spent a year in Tokyo as part of my degree, and I have to say that I think for students, Tokyo is extremely liveable! Even though I had no money and had to leave my dorm for a house in the sticks, the atmosphere was lovely, there was always something fun to do and I loved how you could walk around anywhere and always end up stumbling across a beautiful little shrine or park.

On the flipside, I know that working a proper job in Tokyo would give rise to a different experience altogether. Just one look at the crowded trains in the morning... I think the list would be compiled very differently for different people (yes, obvious comment is obvious, but you all know what I mean).

It's funny that Melbourne has hit the top of the list about 10 years after it started to really decline in liveability. A victim of its own popularity it's getting far too big too fast, and suffering as a result. Urban sprawl and severely overcrowded public transport are some of the problems. Currently 4 million, it's expected to be 6 million, and bigger than Sydney within 15 years.

Ha ha this list is funny!

The world's most livable city is Rome, New York.

And if Tokyo is #18, the world's cities are indeed in dire straits!

Melbourne is a helluva town - dont let anyone tell ya otherwise. Cafes and bars are classic, ignore the traffic and a nice, warm spring afternoon will melt your heart. Easy transport in the city limits, plenty of jobs, Asian yellow fever off the chart, the markets and schools are as good as anywhere.

Sporting events dont regularly get 100,000 people - nowhere near. Thats a fallacy.

One game of AFL gets 100,000 people a year. Spring Carnival is a very nice day out. Leave the wife at home and get crazy.

The food in Melbourne is very good, but aint cheap. Osaka food quality is way better and half the price. Japanese service ruins Melbourne and Sydney.

Melbourne is soooo expensive it is almost not worth moving to. A half decent place will set you back $550 a week and your neighbours will suck.

Overall? Worlds best city - heck, I love Melbourne but if it is the worlds most livable city - the rest of the world sets itself ordinary standards....

The world's most livable city is Rome, New York.

Rome - polluted, crime, no jobs, too many Italians

New York - See Rome.

I enjoyed Melbourne when I visited but I thought Hobart, Tasmania was a lot more friendly. I'd go back to Hobart anytime.

Taka

Taka - agreed - Hobart is a nice little place, but don't know if it was included in this survey of world cities. But if we are talking places in the region of 150,000 - 200,000 people I would nominate Cairns. Stunningly beautiful, friendly internationalised people, awesome cuisine, rainforests and SCUBA diving...pretty much everything. Japanese can't get enough of the joint! Small countryside places like Cairns and Hobart are much friendlier than international cities like Sydney and Melbourne and show us Aussies at our world-class best.

I really can't deal with big cities. Its even hard for me to even want to visit them. I've never been to New York, never been to Tokyo, and Melbourne most certainly isn't on my list of places to visit let alone stay.

Singapore should be higher. I don't trust The Economist anyway. What a farcical publication.

This is dubious. Lived in Melbourne most my life but not sure I'd name it #1. Again, it's subjective. In comparison to Japan, if you're young and still exploring, Tokyo is the place to be. On the other hand, if you're looking to settle down and start a family etc., Melbourne wins hands down.

Melbourne food is fantastic, but isn't cheap. Shopping is so-so but way too expensive. Cafe culture rocks though!

Foxie

Used to live in Melbourne but didn't like it that much. 4 seasons in one day, sweltering heat in summer, it is far to go to a good beach, St. Kilda sucks. Nowadays, racism seems to be a big problem there. I'd rather live in Sydney

You have goto be joking. To far to the beach, so 30 minutes to an hour (depending on where you live) to a city beach which are clean and unpolluted. And racism yeah funny on, how many race riots has Melbourne had compared to Sydney? At least in Melbourne you can buy a house in the suburbs and still be able to live without being in debt for ever. And sweltering in summer yeah a couple of scorchers a year (Sydney gets more) and four seasons in one day, goto love that beats Japan and its 3-4 months of the same temperature day in day out.

I'm from Calgary and find it surprising to be ranked so high when it is below zero 6 months a year and snows up to 8 months a year. There is no place to swim, traffic is bad, housing very expensive (house prices twice of Tokyo), lots of immigrants, everyone obsessed with making and talking about money, everybody dresses the same, I could go on and on.

There is no place to swim, traffic is bad, housing very expensive (house prices twice of Tokyo), lots of immigrants,

Bloody immigrants, eh? Which Native American tribe are you from?

To cold to live in, has a European look to it, Nobu restaurant in Crown Casino and the Italian restaurants are quite nice, video game industry is based in Melbourne also.

Tokyo and Osaka would beat Melbourne and Sydney though :P

I visited The Economist website (the survey organiser) as I was curious to see the results in more detail of the top 10 cities. $265 US dollars is the charge for each city report. A joke! Clearly, this organisation is all about making profits and it wouldn't surprise me if Australia Tourism paid for these results. After all, they spend over $3.5 million Australian dollars to get Oprah Winfrey to Australia. As well as paying god knows how much to Hollywood for Baz Luhrmann to create his (not such a masterpiece) movie called 'Australia' back in 2008. What better way to advertise Australia then by promoting our cities as liveable.

Actually the world's most livable city has to be Shanghai, China, since about 18,000,000 people live there.

Runner-up would be Delhi, India, with around 17,000.000.

There wouldn't be so many people living in these cities if they weren't especially livable.

I like the comment about Calgary, below zero for 6 months out of the year?? And this is supposed to be one of the Economists most livable cities? Is this why there are so many Americans and Canadians down in Mexico every winter? Sure Mexico has a bit of crime, but at least we have way better weather than a lot of these so called top 10 cities, and I am sure no Mexicans in there right mind would ever even think of trading a nice warm sunny beach for below freezing weather up in the USA, Canada etc..unless they are too poor and end up working there at Mc Donalds etc...

I love Melbourne

My roommate is from Melbourne and she's glad to get out of there. She say she used to drive- on average 1 hour to get dinner (and that's intown). While it's a nice looking, she says, the roads are jammed packed (note that she has also been to New York, so she knows traffic) and also it's way to hot. She's gotten faint from the heat aleast 3 times during each summer- and she from there. It's nicer in the winter, because it cooler- though there still is the traffic problem though.

roommate So if you go there- go in December!

Yep... Australia has no transport infrastructure to deal with the rising refugee populations, because everyone and his dog wants to move there. End result is a lot of these cities are experiencing traffic gridlock now because the state governments would rather build football stadiums than deal with public transport issues, or even fix hospitals. House prices are ludicrous because if it's one thing Australians like to do when they get together, is develop property and whack huge price tags on it. Just look at what they've done to Niseko in Hokkaido.

Neo_Rio

House prices are ludicrous because if it's one thing Australians like to do when they get together, is develop property and whack huge price tags on it.

Yeah right, if you actually get outside of the central cities into the suburbs and beyond l think you will find that house prices for what you get are fairly good. For example in Melbourne you can get a 4 bedroom house on 2 acres with a pool within 1 hour of the centre of Melbourne and 30 minutes from the beach for $400,000 AU (32,000,000 yen). You could not get anything remotely close to this in Japan

You could not get anything remotely close to this in Japan

agree, but the 10hr commute to Tokyo would be a bit too much :)

While a lot of cities in Japan are probably easier to live in than Tokyo and Osaka(Fukuoka springs to mind), the problem is that, especially for professionals, there just aren't a lot of jobs in those cities. Kyushu as a whole has the worst college graduate unemployment rate of any region in the country(hovering around 10%). Availability of employment factors heavily into these calculations as it doesn't really matter if a place is wonderful if you cannot afford to live there.

Japan as a whole really needs to start doing a better job of dispersing wealth and opportunities over wider areas of the country. As time goes by more and more young people feel they have no choice but to move to Tokyo(and to a lesser extent Osaka) just to find meaningful employment. It's no wonder you are having issues with the child birth rate if you are sticking most of your fertile population in a really cramped and expensive environment.