Vienna named world’s most liveable city again in 2023. Other European cities slipped out of top 10

Have you ever visited a city and left with such a good vibe from it that you immediately begin checking property listings and job adverts once you return home?

Anyone who has visited any of the top ten cities on the Economist’s annual Global Liveability Index can perhaps relate.

The 2023 listings give an insight into where it’s preferable to live this year and include cities from every continent. In recent years, there have been recurrent entries for certain cities in the top 10, making you wonder whether they have cracked the secret to better living.

Of course, when compiling the Global Liveability Index, it’s not just a good vibe that sets cities apart for the Economist’s Intelligence team.

The overall score - out of 100 - is determined by examining a plethora of factors, including the quality of healthcare, education, cultural scene, infrastructure, and so on.

Many cities out of the 173 cities studied as part of the report saw an uplift in their scores after the last COVID-19 restrictions eased and life regained some semblance of pre-pandemic normality.

In fact, the average index score across all cities (excluding Kyiv) survey has now reached 76.2 out of 100, up from 73.2 a year ago, the highest score in 15 years for the original list of 140 cities compared.

Despite a shift for the better for the majority of cities post-pandemic, one of the noticeable shifts in this year’s report compared to 2022 is the number of European cities slipping further down the rankings.

This is partly due to instability scores plunging, with some cities feeling the effects of the Ukraine war.

Frankfurt and Amsterdam both crashed out of the top 10, having previously occupied 7th and 9th spots in 2022.

Cities in the UK were among the European cities