The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Index just granted Amsterdam a sweet spot among the world’s top 10 most liveable cities! 🏆
Touristy and obnoxious, or beautiful and exciting? In the Netherlands, Amsterdam has many labels — and ‘liveable’ now is officially one of them.
This year, Amsterdam officially ranks at place #9 out of 173 competing cities, says Bloomberg. Congrats! 🎉
Europe and Canada at the top
As Amsterdam snatches the 9th place, it’s in good company with cities the likes of Geneva, Toronto, and Copenhagen. In general, the ranking makes clear that Europe and Canada are the best options if you’re considering moving abroad in 2022 — with the addition of Osaka, Japan as well.
The top 10 most livable cities
Without further ado, here is the full list of the top 10 most liveable cities in 2022 (and uhm, 10th place has two winners, just ignore that):
- #1: Vienna, Austria
- #2: Zurich, Switzerland
- #3: Copenhagen, Denmark
- #4: Calgary, Canada
- #5: Vancouver, Canada
- #6: Geneva, Switzerland
- #7: Frankfurt, Germany
- #8: Toronto, Canada
- #9: Amsterdam, Netherlands
- #10: Osaka, Japan
- #10: Melbourne, Australia
More than just a good time
When the 173 cities were assessed, several aspects counted for their final placement, among which were: health care, crime rates, political stability, infrastructure, and access to green space. 🌱
It’s no secret that Amsterdam is like a tourism-Disneyland, but it’s clearly also a great place to live! While the ranking includes many not-so-typically tourist destinations, Amsterdam gets the best of both worlds, according to the EIU.
READ MORE | Lover’s paradise? Amsterdam ranks 5th in the best cities for dating in the world
During the past few years of coronavirus-dominated governing, many cities found that their placements changed from previous years, as lockdowns and restrictions limited people’s quality of life more generally.
Not all change is good change
With two cities in the Top 10, Switzerland must be pretty chuffed right now! Canada is also clearly one of the big winners this year, whilst Australia and New Zealand are surprisingly absent. 👀
You might also be surprised to see both Paris and London missing — everyone’s favourite European city trip destinations. 🤩 This development is likely to be due to Brexit in the case of London, and the significant increase in living costs in the French capital. Ouch!
Conflict is not good for liveability (duh)
Taking the general criteria into account, it’s no wonder that conflict-ridden countries don’t do too well on the liveability ranking. 🤕 Here are the bottom five cities of this year’s ranking:
- #168: Karachi, Pakistan
- #169: Algiers, Algeria
- #170: Tripoli, Libya
- #171: Lagos, Nigeria
- #172: Damascus, Syria
A surprising result?
Despite the constant dangers of being run down by angry cyclists, stumbling into a canal after a few Heinekens, and being swallowed by the ocean as sea levels rise, Amsterdam seems to be doing pretty good this year. 😏
READ MORE | 21 beautiful towns in the Netherlands that aren’t Amsterdam
And who is really surprised? We all loveee to bully the capital’s inhabitants for being a bit too full of themselves, and desperately hipster-ish at the same time, but let’s face it — Amsterdam is pretty damn nice. 🧡
Which Dutch city would you like to see in the ranking next year? Tell us in the comments below!
This is ridiculous! There is no housing in Amsterdam and if there is it’s super expensive.
Students have no where to live.
I guess it’s “the most livable for the rich” list.
I never understood the people who do research and decide what city or country is bes in the world, I mean on websites and YouTube when you see the most beautiful, richest, liveable cities like London, Amsterdam and Toronto, I mean come on you need to explore more and expand your research.
The only people who have never been to those places will believe your posts like this.
I live in Amsterdam and it is a slum, over crowded, sex, drugs, dirty smelly water of canals, no public toilets, you can’t sleep at night because of noise around the streets.
I see a lot of accommodation lacking news about Amsterdam. I don’t really understand the criteria to sort it within top 10? Maybe livable for the rich?