It's best known as a quaint holiday spot on Victoria's surf coast but now Warrnambool has been ranked Australia's most liveable city in a new national study.

The Ipsos annual Life in Australia study crowned Warrnambool and its surrounding region the most livable city as well as region in 2018, seen as a place where people spend time with family and in nature, not stuck in traffic.

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The picturesque maritime city scored highest in both the metropolitan and regional rankings with 68.7 out of 100 on the livability index, narrowly beating inner-Perth (68.6) and the Adelaide Hills (67) in the annual study, which ranks areas across 17 factors.

Warrnambool's high scores in the attributes of access to nature, feeling safe, a sense of community and a lack of traffic congestion helped the area score so highly.

A three-hour drive from Melbourne, Warrnambool has a preserved historical centre. Credit: Getty

In the battle of the two big cities, Sydney's eastern suburbs scored best with 65.8, while Melbourne’s highest-ranked area was the inner south (65), rounding out the top five for urban areas.

Both affluent areas scored highly for feeling safe and access to nature, but had lower rankings for affordable housing.

At the other end of the scale, Sydney’s south west (49.1) and Blacktown (51.9) were the two least-liveable metro areas, followed by Logan-Beaudesert in Brisbane (53.1), Melbourne’s west (53.5) and Sydney’s Parramatta (53.6).

Warrnambook ranked highly for access to nature and feeling of community. Credit: Getty

Ipsos's public affairs deputy director Daniel Evans said the study takes a "citizen-centric" approach to understanding livability, surveying 10,000 people each year to hear what they think makes somewhere a good place to live.

As for regional areas, sunny Queensland fared the worst.

Central Queensland ranked lowest (53.3) and Townsville was not much better (53.6), both ranking poorly on job prospects and public transport.

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