Toronto Ranks 4th in EIU Most Liveable City in the World Study

We have often mentioned here on the Miratel blog how we benefit from having our Toronto contact centre and mail house located in such a vibrant city. We have featured findings from a study conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers that ranked Toronto 2nd as a ‘City of Opportunity’ amongst 26 leading global metropolises. We also wrote about CIBC World Markets’ Metropolitan Economic Activity Index Ratings which placed Toronto in the top spot led by its vibrant labour market. Today we are pleased to write about the latest report, Liveability Ranking and Overview August 2011, released by The Economist Intelligence Unit which placed Toronto as the 4th most liveable city on its global list. Actually, 3 Canadian cities placed in the top 10 on this liveable cities list with Vancouver placing 3rd and Calgary finding itself occupying the 5th spot. 2011 marks the first time in almost a decade that Vancouver has not topped this list although all indications point that this may be a temporary setback. The report states that the top-ranked cities tend to be mid-sized cities in wealthier countries, with a low population density and asserts that conflict is responsible for many of the lowest scores.

The report explains that the “concept of liveability is simple: it assesses which locations around the world provide the best or the worst living conditions. Assessing liveability has a broad range of uses. The survey originated as a means of testing whether Human Resource Departments needed to assign a hardship allowance as part of expatriate relocation packages. While this function is still a central potential use of the survey, it has also evolved as a broad means of benchmarking cities. This means that liveability is increasingly used by city councils, organisations or corporate entities looking to test their locations against others to see general areas where liveability can differ.”

Toronto Skyline from Ward’s Island taken by c_pix @ flickr.com/photos/c_pix

The study states that it ranks 140 cities based on its 0-100 scoring in “30 qualitative and quantitative factors spread across five areas: stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. Each factor in a city is rated as acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable. For qualitative indicators, a rating is awarded based on the judgment of in-house analysts and in-city contributors. For quantitative indicators, a rating is calculated based on the relative performance of a number of external data points. The scores are then compiled and weighted to provide a score of 1–100, where 1 is considered intolerable and 100 is considered ideal. The liveability rating is provided both as an overall score and as a score for each category. To provide points of reference, the score is also given for each category relative to New York and an overall position in the ranking of 140 cities is provided.”

According to the report, the top 10 most liveable cities are:

1. Melbourne, Australia
2. Vienna, Austria
3. Vancouver, Canada
4. Toronto, Canada
5. Calgary, Canada
6. Sydney, Australia
7. Helsinki, Finland
8. Perth, Australia
9. Adelaide, Australia
10. Auckland, New Zealand

According to the report, the bottom 10 cities on the list are:

1. Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
2. Tehran, Iran
3. Douala, Cameroon
4. Karachi, Pakistan
5. Tripoli, Libya
6. Algiers, Algeria
7. Lagos, Nigeria
8. Port Moresby, PNG
9. Dhaka, Bangladesh
10. Harare, Zimbabwe

The report contains more in-depth information on the methodology used and other factors that were considered in this study which is excellent news for 3 Canadian cities including Toronto where our contact centre and mail house head office is located.

If you’d like to read an overview of the report, you can do so here or you can register to download the overview by following this link. The full report is also available for purchase.

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