Vancouver named 'world's best city' by Economist Magazine
 

Vancouver named 'world's best city'

CTV.ca News Staff

For the fourth year in a row, Vancouver has claimed the top spot on an international ranking of the world's most livable cities.

In its annual survey of world cities, the think-tank division of London-based Economist magazine ranks the British Columbia metropolis first among 127.

To create its list, the Economist Intelligence Unit surveyed the cities, assigning each one a 'hardship rating' based on such factors as infrastructure, health care, public safety and access to goods and services.

Vancouver scored a mere one per cent.

With three Canadian cities in the Top 10, residents of Toronto and Calgary also have reason to cheer, as their cities are ranked ninth and tenth respectively.

The EIU's top 10 cities are as follows:

* Vancouver
* Melbourne
* Vienna
* Geneva
* Perth
* Adelaide
* Sydney
* Zurich
* Toronto
* Calgary

According to the report's editor, cities in Canada, Australia and Western Europe topped the list, largely because they are not perceived as targets for terror attacks.

At the other end of the scale, Algiers in Algeria, and Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea ranked last. The reason, the EIU said, is that "many aspects of daily life present challenges."

The EIU's bottom 10 cities:

* Tehran
* Douala
* Harare
* Abidjan
* Phnom Penh
* Lagos
* Karachi
* Dhaka
* Algiers
* Port Moresby

id like to go to port moresby..must be some goodtimes

I wonder where this shithole came in...

From The BBC:


BBC NEWS
Vancouver is 'best place to live'
Vancouver is the world's best place to live, a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has found.

The EIU ranked 127 cities in terms of personal risk, infrastructure and the availability of goods and services.

All the cities that fell into the top "liveability" bracket were based in Canada, Australia and Western Europe.

The worst places were Algiers in Algeria, and Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea because "many aspects of daily life present challenges", the EIU said.

Safe havens?

Canadian cities scored well, as did Austria's Vienna and Switzerland's Geneva, because they are not seen as targets for terror attacks.


TOP TEN
Vancouver
Melbourne
Vienna
Geneva
Perth
Adelaide
Sydney
Zurich
Toronto
Calgary
Source: EIU

The main uncertainty for people living in the those cities are climate-related, the EIU said.

"In the current global political climate, it is no surprise that the most desirable destinations are those with the lower perceived threat of terrorism," said Jon Copestake, editor of the EIU report.

The survey has produced a mixed picture of the world's cities. London was ranked in the 10th group, on a par with Dublin and Los Angeles, but one place below Manchester, four behind Berlin, five lower than Tokyo, and six off Helsinki, Frankfurt and Stockholm.


Bottom 10 cities
Tehran
Douala
Harare
Abidjan
Phnom Penh
Lagos
Karachi
Dhaka
Algiers
Port Moresby
Source: EIU

In Latin America, "no city manages to present ideal living conditions, neither do any fall into the category where extreme difficulties are faced", the EIU said.

Montevideo in Uruguay, Santiago in Chile and Buenos Aires in Argentina offer the region's best conditions. Bogota in Colombia and Caracas in Venezuela score the least favourably.

In Asia, cities in Japan, South Korea, Singapore, China and Taiwan all score well, as do Australia's main hubs.

Africa and the Middle East fare less well, with the EIU citing concerns about terror attacks, and economic and political instability.

Some of the worst performing cities include Harare in Zimbabwe and Lagos in Nigeria.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...ss/4306936.stm

Published: 2005/10/04 00:29:52 GMT

go melbourne...

Ahhh god I miss Van :(

DH

What about all the damn rain in Vancouver?

I would love to go to Vancouver i head it was really nice.

how much can i buy a house in Port Moresby for? less than a house in downtown Detroit or more?

WTG Vancouver
It is a really nice area to visit and live.
I think Victoria is much better though not as fast paced as Van

wOOt!! Go Vancouver!! :thumbsup

I love Vancouver

I wish they'd stop publishing this... Better left as a secret :winkwink:

Obviously they didn't factor in the fact that you pay almost $1k a month for rent in a carboard box and bread can be as much as $3.00 a loaf.

But the Susi is cheap and gay day at Playland is hella-fun.

West is the best.

Agreed. I moved here not knowing what to expect but I really like it.

Vancouver is friggin boring as hell... and the not seeing the sun for months at a time will make you want to kill yourself.

They seem to have ignored weather as a factor.

Vancouver Rocks!!!

Haha I'm with the people who are saying Victoria is better :)

Lets see, first time in Vancouver, I got my car window busted out and 1000 worth of stuff stolen from my car (phones, leather jacket, cds, money, etc..)


Fuck them druggies

I'm off to the Island next week. Should be fun.

Burnaby's Better!

LOL yeah. What a joke of a ranking system.

Access to healthcare? Access to social services? LOL. If you want socialized healthcare that is completely horrid and pay ridiculous taxes to pay for it, go live in canada. When I lived in the northern states of the USA I saw wealthy canadians by the thousands coming here to the usa for their healthcare. The reason? Health care in canada sucks!

yeah, sure...the arctic tundra is a great place to live. :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

Shhhh, stop telling people! Then they'll all want to live here.

Btw, I'll take rain over 4 feet of snow and -40 degree winters any day!

Yes, because it's so cold here......

We all live in igloos, dogsled to work, and hunt seals for the fur for our parkas. :upsidedow

yep I've known this for a long time now :)
personally I hate the winter here, for the fact that it's so damn warm and we got a shitty snowboard season last year..

I've been living in Vancouver and Victoria for over 10 years. And being from Northern Ontario, and Edmonton, AB; I can say without a doubt that winter does not exist in Vancouver or Victoria.

Not suprising since Vancouver has a stellar reputation for beeing outstanding!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2299119.stm

see what I mean!

and yet, Canadians live longer than Americans - source

and the World Health Organization ranked Canada's health system above Americas - source

Personally, I went to a hospital in Canada after a hiking accident, and I received excellent care. The hospital was modern, clean, and everyone was very attentive. I've heard there's a bit of a waiting list for elective surgery (non-life threatening stuff), but the wait times I read about weren't too bad.

The summers are beautiful in Van but I can't stand the fall and winter.

I am not surprised it is beautiful. But being in my twenties I find it boring. If you want to raise a family or retire then its good. For me and a lot of my friends we are always trying to get out of here. Too slow and laid back here!

I like Vancity way better than Victoria. A $100 round trip for one person and a car on the ferry every time to get to the mainland is just too much for me. But it's a nice place to visit my grandmama. :)

thats right Calgary is up there, maybe Vancouver is maintaining its spot because all the fucking bums from there are coming here.

i see so many fucking license plates from the east and to our west, more and more every month.

i wish people would stay the fuck out of my city. i kind of wish we didnt make the list, we are growing to fast for our infastructure as is, all this is gonna do is convince more whiny frenchmen thinking they can come out west for a free ticket to live.

I refuse to take any list seriously that doesn't have NYC in the top 10.

This popular US travel magazine agrees with you:


Vancouver Voted Best Island To Visit

CanWest News Service
Saturday, July 16, 2005

Vancouver Island is the best island to visit in North America, according to the latest Travel + Leisure magazine readers' 10th-annual survey.

The island ranked sixth world-wide in the survey by what's arguably the top U.S. consumer travel magazine. The good news for Vancouver Island tourism doesn't stop there. The only three Canadian hotels on the survey's top 100 worldwide are from the island.

The survey's impact has been felt even before the August issue hits the stands, according to Deirdre Campbell of Tartan Communications, a Victoria public relations firm specializing in the travel industry. The phone has been ringing at the Malahat's Aerie Resort since it was among those featured in a preview of the awards earlier this week on NBC's Today Show.

"People are calling, and saying 'where's Vancouver Island?' and "how do I get there?' " said Ms. Campbell, who has The Aerie as a client.

"We truly couldn't afford to buy this advertising," said Tourism Victoria's Melissa McLean even though Victoria, at ninth spot, lags four behind Vancouver as a North American destination.

"It's very significant because the U.S. market is on decline, so any exposure we get is wonderful," Ms. Campbell said.

Travel + Leisure subscribers rated islands on natural attractions, activities and sights, restaurants and food, people, and value. They evaluated hotels on rooms and facilities, location, service, restaurants and food, and value.

? National Post 2005

Then have a look at this survey by Mercer: "The survey uses New York City as a base case, assigning it a grade of 100. New York City placed 13th."


Vancouver No. 2 City In The World
Ties with Vienna in quality-of-life survey of 215 major world cities

Drew Hasselback
Financial Post
Monday, March 14, 2005

Vancouver's livability puts it in the top rank of North American cities; four other Canadian cities make it into the top 10.

For the third year in a row, Vancouver has been ranked as the city with the second-best quality of life in the world.

According to a survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, Vancouver ties Vienna for second place, behind top ranked Geneva and Zurich.

The annual survey grades 215 cities based on 39 criteria, including safety, public services, schools, climate and recreation.

Mercer prepares the survey for governments, companies and organizations looking to place employees on international assignments.

Vancouver is the top-ranked North American city, but the four other Canadian cities included in the survey, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Calgary, also made the top 10.

Vancouver is no stranger to the top ranks of the survey. It placed second both last year and in 2003, third in 2002, and ranked first in 2001 and 2000.

The survey uses New York City as a base case, assigning it a grade of 100. Because many cities receive the same numerical grade, tie scores are common. The 215 cities included in this year's survey are distributed to 109 ranks. New York City placed 13th.

The two Swiss cities tied for first place with grades of 106.5, edging out second place Vancouver and Vienna, which each scored 106.

The other Canadian cities weren't far behind, with Toronto in seventh spot with a score of 103.5, Ottawa ranking eighth at 103, Montreal in ninth at 102.5, and Calgary ranking tenth at 102.

The only other North American cities to crack the top 10 were Honolulu and San Francisco, which joined Calgary in the tenth position.

Baghdad was deemed the world's worst for quality of life, scoring a paltry 14.5 to capture 109th place.

Luxembourg won top honours in a special ranking of cities based on the quality of their personal safety and security. All five Canadian cities included in the survey tied for sixth in the safety list, making them the only North American cities in the top 10 of that category.

The safety rankings are based on internal stability, crime rates, the frequency of terrorist attacks, the quality of law enforcement, and the degree of personal freedoms.

Ignorance is bliss, eh? I've got nothing but possitive stories about our healthcare system here. I've never seen any of the "sucky canadian health care" you speak of. Sure, there are waiting lists, but thats to be expected when it's free, right? I'd rather wait a month or two, than get dinged out the ass every month paying for medical like you folks down south.

Our healthcare system was also rated as being better than yours. And my dad can beat up your dad.

Australia has 4 cities in the top 10... nice!!!!

November 2003 Maxim Magazine

Maxim Magazine votes Vancouver as one of the top 5 bachelor party cities.

Vancouver Island beats the shit out of most anywhere else.

Never found the Nightlife in Vancouver thrilling, regardless of what Maxim says.

From Conde Nast Traveller Magazine (biggest US travel magazine):

Vancouver - #1 City in the Americas

Editors of the seminal travel magazine tabulated its readers 30,000 votes from the Conde Nast 2004 Readers' Choice Awards, and Vancouver beat out rivals like Mexico City, Toronto and San Jose, Costa Rico.

One thing Vancouver ranks very poorly in is traffic. The traffic is really bad and the roads must have been designed by a retard. I have visited there many times and the roads just drive me crazy. And I live in Seattle one of the worst cities for traffic in the USA.

Vancouver is a really nice city for sure... but best in the world? I dunno.

It rains like all the time... and I have never seen so many street walkers, and vagrants in any city I have ever been in my life. Top it off, the traffic and highway strategies are horrendous.

Oh and the taxes? fuggeduhboutit.

Vancouver roads are a grid system, seems like you'd have to be a retard if you don't understand it.

Also, I'm always surprised how little time it takes me to get from the airport to downtown everytime I fly to Vancouver. I don't think Vancouver traffic is overly bad, unless you're one of the people who live out in the valley.

I couldn't live here if I lived in the suburbs or had to commute. I would have a nervous breakdown from the insanity on the roads.

Yeah, must agree, especially when it comes to live music. Doesn't compare to Toronto at all for seeing bands play.