THE past decade has been a tumultuous one. Civil wars, terrorist attacks and a financial meltdown have put pressure on the quality of life around the world. Small wonder then that the Economist Intelligence Unit, our corporate cousin, has found that most of the world’s cities have grown less liveable for expats and business travellers. Some 98 of the 140 cities surveyed have seen a drop in their “liveability” score since 2007. But the latest annual index, released on August 16th, shows a welcome (albeit marginal) increase in global liveability for the first time in ten years.

An improvement in just a dozen cities over the past year has been enough to tip the global average in the survey, which considers 30 factors related to safety, health care, educational resources, infrastructure and the environment. Amsterdam, for example, has seen a steady decline in crime rates, prompting Dutch authorities to close down empty prisons. And Reykjavik has climbed 13 places to 37th after an influx of visitors to Iceland, and the redevelopment of the city centre (boosting its “cultural availability” score). Manchester and Stockholm, both of which recently experienced terrorist attacks, are among the handful of cities to experience a decline since 2016.

At the top of the ranking, Melbourne holds onto first place for the seventh year in a row, followed closely by Vienna and Vancouver. Megacities like London, Paris, New York and Tokyo have higher levels of crime, congestion and public-transport problems than are deemed comfortable. As a result they rarely trouble the upper reaches of the index. War-torn Damascus remains at the foot of the table for the fifth year running.

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