Urban Studies

Every year the Economist Intelligence Unit looks at all the cities in the world and ranks their livability based on stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. Which city came out on top?

For the fourth straight year, it's Vancouver, with its nice climate, crime-free streets, and universal healthcare. Most of the cities in the top 10 were Canadian or Australian, actually. Melbourne, Australia, knocked Vienna, Austria, from the No. 2 spot. Vienna is now No. 3, followed by Canada's Toronto and Calgary. Furthering the reign of the land down under, Sydney came in seventh and Perth and Adelaide tied for eighth. This should kick off an impossibly bloody feud between the two bellicose nations that will culminate in a devastating curling match or swim meet or something completely innocuous like that.

Because of the way the study is set up, mid-sized cities in larger countries tend to do the best. That's why the top American city was Pittsburgh. Well, that and because it's one of the gayest in the country, too. (I disagree with both of these findings, by the way.) As for Los Angeles and New York, they came in 44th and 56th, respectively, just like last year. And Harare, Zimbabwe, held on to the lowest position in the rankings. Maybe we should send some Canadians there to clean the place up.