MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Buenos Aires and Santiago, the most liveable cities in South America, says EIU

The Colon opera house in Buenos Aires has one of the best acoustics of the world

Montevideo figures in position 65 in the world ranking of most liveable cities elaborated by The Economist Intelligence Unit, (EIU) and which was released this week. Only Buenos Aires and Santiago figure ahead of the Uruguayan capital in positions 62 and 63 as the most liveable cities in South America.

Among the world’s top ten Melbourne displaced Vancouver as the most liveable city, followed by Vienna, Austria and the Canadian city on the west coast. Vancouver lost its top ranking which it had occupied undisputedly since 2002.

Australian and Canadian cities dominated the top of the rankings accounting for seven of the top ten cities on the list, whilst a “slight depreciation” in liveability, driven by the current crisis in the Euro zone, saw a poor showing by European cities, particularly in Athens, Greece, which dropped to position 67.

The ranking shows Sydney in position 6; Perth and Adelaide sharing place 8 while Toronto figures 4th and Calgary, 5th, while Helsinki is 7th and Auckland, New Zealand, tenth.

Originally designed to measure the hardships that came with the relocation of expatriates the Economist Intelligence Unit’s liveability survey works on the simple premise of assessing the best and worst living conditions from 140 locations around the world taking into account such criteria as stability, healthcare, culture, environment, education and infrastructure.

Unsurprisingly, the impact of the Arab Spring and civil war in Libya pushed down scores across the Middle East and North Africa, most notably in Tripoli, Libya.

The best placed Spanish city is Barcelona, ranked 34, five positions above Madrid. Paris is ranked 16, Tokyo, 18 and London, 53, while the best placed US city is Honolulu in position 26.