With a rating of almost 100, Vancouver is the world's most liveable city according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's latest liveability ranking (see full report).
"Can you imagine the change in the liveability of this city if people invested in its sidewalks?" Manohar asks.
"The most successful places of our time are those that are investing in the liveability of the city," says Prathima Manohar, founder of the Urban Vision.
I think the liveability of a city is a key complement to it".
Here's how the rankings were generated:The Economist Intelligence Unit's liveability rating quantifies the challenges that might be presented to an individual's lifestyle in 140 cities worldwide.
That means less oxygen is making it down to the depths, reducing the liveability of the oceans.
Competitors were asked to combine data from the EIU's liveability ranking with data from other sources to create a new ranking.
If congestion worsens, the city may slip down the liveability rankings, attracting fewer new residents.
The methodology looks at cost considerations as well as environmental factors such as stability, infrastructure, culture and health care.Cities in Canada and Australia take four of the top five spots (as they do in the EIU's liveability ranking), but rising costs in Europe mean that Helsinki is the only European city in the top ten.
But Chris Bradford has some criticisms of the methodology:This kind of list is silly because we already have a much more accurate method of gauging "liveability": just compare prices.
The threat of terrorism or conflict plays a large part in the rankings of cities that score poorly for liveability, as other indicators such as infrastructure and recreational availability often suffer where violence occurs.While liveability considers factors of recreational and cultural availability, the "big city buzz" can also hamper scores.
