VIENNA PRIDES itself on its abundance of music and art, its grand architecture and its one-of-a-kind Kaffeehauskultur. According to an annual index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a sister company of The Economist, the Austrian capital is the most liveable city in the world for the second year running. On the EIU’s index, which ranks 140 cities on 30 factors bunched into five categories—stability, health care, culture and environment, education and infrastructure—Vienna scores a near-perfect 99.1 out of 100, putting it just ahead of Melbourne. Sydney and Osaka fill the next two spots in a top ten dominated by Australian, Canadian and Japanese cities. Higher crime rates and ropey infrastructure pull some bigger cities like London, New York and Paris down the league table, despite their cultural and culinary attractions.

Overall, scores have gone up since last year. In all, 27 cities have become more liveable by the EIU’s reckoning, whereas 15 saw their scores fall. The biggest improvement came in San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, which rose 20 places to 69th—but that owed much to investments in health care and infrastructure after the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. Sydney, the only climber in the top ten, went up by two places thanks to an improvement in its environment score. The Australian city is working to combat the impacts of climate change, outlined in its “Sustainable Sydney 2030” strategy. By contrast, worsening air pollution caused New Delhi to drop six places to 118th and Cairo to fall two places to 125th.

One reason for the overall increase in liveability scores is a slight improvement in perceived stability. Not every city has improved in that category. Paris fared particularly poorly. The anti-government gilets jaunes (yellow jackets) protests, which began in late 2018, helped to push it down the rankings. Demonstrations in Hong Kong, which are now entering their 14th week, came too late to affect that city’s scores. It remains to be seen whether they will affect next year’s edition.