Liveable Vienna

Vienna, Austria, the venue for the 36th Congress of the ESCRS, has been named the world's most liveable city, ahead of Melbourne, Australia. This is a major honour for the city as it the first time a European city has topped the rankings of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) annual survey. The global league table ranks 140 cities on a range of factors, including political and social stability, crime, education and access to healthcare. "A long-running contender to the title, Vienna has succeeded in displacing Melbourne from the top spot, ending a record seven consecutive years at the head of the survey for the Australian city," according to the report. "Although both Melbourne and Vienna have registered improvements in liveability over the last six months, increases in Vienna’s ratings, particularly in the stability category, have been enough for the city to overtake Melbourne. The two cities are now separated by 0.7 of a percentage point, with Vienna scoring a near-ideal 99.1 out of 100 and Melbourne scoring 98.4," the EIU report stated. The concept of liveability assesses which locations around the world provide the best or the worst living conditions. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s liveability rating quantifies the challenges that might be presented to an individual’s lifestyle in any given location, and allows for direct comparison between locations. Every city is assigned a rating of relative comfort for over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories: stability, healthcare, 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 1is considered intolerable and 100 is considered ideal. The liveability rating is provided both as an overall score and as a score for each category.