The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Livability Index for 2025, comprising 173 cities worldwide, finds global instability on the rise but increases for education, health care and infrastructure.
North American cities remain highly sought-after places to live, with all 21 on the index reporting the highest tier of livability, defined as a score of 80 or above. However, cities in western Europe and developed Asia continue to dominate the top of the rankings.
The average livability score across all 173 cities was 76.1 out of 100, consistent with 2024. However, stability scores dropped by 0.2 points from last year, amid geopolitical tensions, civil unrest and widespread housing crises. Western European cities were affected by terrorism threats and riots, while Tehran, along with cities in Taiwan and India, experienced drops in stability scores because of intensified risks of military conflict.
EIU collected data for its latest survey between April 14 and May 11.
Western European cities were among the biggest movers down the ranks in 2025. The three cities covered in the United Kingdom — London, Manchester and Edinburgh — dropped, as did the Canadian cities of Calgary and Toronto.
The Middle East and North Africa region, meanwhile, registered the most significant gains in overall livability, primarily driven by advancements in health care and education within cities in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Damascus remains the least livable city in the rankings. Although its potential for improvement has risen significantly following December’s regime change in Syria, rebuilding the city after years of civil war will be a time-consuming task, EIU said.
The livability index assesses locations that provide the best or the worst living conditions. Every city is assigned a rating of relative comfort for some 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories: stability, health care, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. Each factor in a city is rated as acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable.
For qualitative indicators, a rating is awarded based on the judgement of EIU’s expert analysts and in-city contributors. For quantitative indicators, a rating is calculated based on the relative performance of a number of external data points.
Researchers then compile and weight the scores to provide a score of 1–100, where 1 is considered intolerable and 100 is considered ideal. The livability rating serves as both an overall score and as a score for each category.
See the accompanying gallery for the 10 most livable cities in 2025.
This article first published on ThinkAdvisor.com.
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