Melbourne named most liveable city in the world

Melbourne has been named as the best city in the world to live, according to the latest Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) Global Liveability Survey.

The report, coincidentally released on the 176th anniversary of its founding, showed that Melbourne had moved from third to first place, beating Vancouver for the first time in almost a decade. Melbourne has consistently been in the top three positions of the 140 city list, and was last in first position (jointly with Vancouver) in 2002.

The survey result is no surprise to veski or the 12 veski innovation fellows who have been lured back to Melbourne to work in recent years.

According to 2011 veski innovation fellow, Dr Matthew Call, when ""deciding whether to stay in North America or come back to (Melbourne)" it all came down to "opportunity here at WEHI and living in a fantastic city like Melbourne ... (which) ticked all the right boxes".

Melbourne scores highly in all of the EIU’s criteria and achieves perfect scores in the areas of healthcare, education and infrastructure. Melbourne is well-known for its high quality of life, with its vibrant multicultural community, renowned arts scene and world famous food and wine as well as Australia’s best shopping and leisure opportunities.

Australian cities dominated the rankings with four cities inside the top ten, with Sydney coming in sixth place and Perth and Adelaide coming in joint eighth. Vienna came in second place with Toronto (4), Calgary (5), Helsinki (7) and Auckland (10) rounding off the top ten.

The EIU’s Liveability Ranking, part of the Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, assesses living conditions in 140 cities around the world by assigning a rating across five broad categories of stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

As the world’s most liveable city, Melbourne attracts people from all over the world ensuring a steady supply of highly talented workers.

On top of this, news that Australia’s R&D tax credit was passed by Parliament last week means that Melbourne is now also the most attractive environment for R&D in the world.

Its enviable lifestyle, skilled and innovative workforce and competitive and dynamic business environment all combine to make Melbourne one of the world’s most dynamic cities.