Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, has been ranked as the world’s “most liveable city” for 2025, per a list released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The list contains the names of 173 cities around the world that have been ranked based on a number of significant factors, including healthcare, education, stability, infrastructure and the environment.
Copenhagen came ahead of Vienna, which had held the top ranking for the last three years. Vienna tied with the Swiss city of Zurich for second place. The top two were followed by Australia’s Melbourne and Switzerland’s Geneva, respectively. Sydney, Australia, rose from joint seventh position to sixth place, while Auckland, New Zealand, and Osaka, Japan, tied for seventh place this year. The third Australian city to place in the top 10 was Adelaide, which came in at number 9, while Vancouver, Canada, came in at number 10.
Canada’s Calgary, which placed fifth in 2024, slipped out of the top 10 this year into 18th position after obtaining a lower healthcare score because of a “strain” on the nation’s healthcare system. As a result, Toronto dropped from 12th to 16th position this year.
While some destinations fell down the list, other cities had notable improvements, with Al Khobar in the Persian Gulf of Saudi Arabia rising 13 spots from 148th to 135th. Jakarta, Indonesia, also rose in the rankings, moving up 10 spots from 142 to 132 as a result of improvements in its stability score. The cities at the bottom of the list haven’t changed in the last year. Damascus in Syria continues to be the least liveable city in the world. Tripoli, Libya, was ranked second to last in the list. While Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, came in third from the bottom, Pakistan’s Karachi and Algeria’s Algiers were named the fourth and fifth least liveable cities, respectively.
