Melbourne has been ranked Australia’s most liveable city, beating out previous frontrunner Adelaide. South Australians are undoubtedly figuring out how to weaponise that giant metal pigeon in Rundle Mall and claim vengeance as we speak.
The rankings come from The Economist’s Economist Intelligence Unit. Every year it compiles the Global Liveability Index report, which placed Adelaide as the world’s third best city to live in during 2021. Alas this year, it dropped to thirtieth place.
As a born and bred Adelaidean, I take deep offence to this. Sure, I haven’t lived there permanently since I was a teen but I stand by Adelaide as one of the best Australian cities.
It’s got better beaches than Sydney and better food than Melbourne. It might not be the buzziest capital but I’ve had far better nights out in Adelaide than in Sydney. You can fight me in the comments on this.
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But alas, The Economist didn’t agree. Melbourne is now the top Aussie city — coming in at tenth in the world. It’s a bit of sneaky top ten placement though: Melbourne is tied with Osaka in Japan for the spot.
A begrudging good job to Melbourne I guess. But it still hasn’t reascended to the loftiest of heights — Melbourne was ranked most liveable city in the world from 2011 to 2018.
Victorian Premier Dan Andrews seemed pretty chuffed with the rankings though.
“The city’s back. We are thriving and Victorians can be very proud of what they’ve achieved,” he said per The Guardian.
According to Economist Intelligence Unit, some Aussie cities slid down the rankings because of their COVID-19 restrictions.
“Some states were slower to lift restrictions than others. As a result, Perth and Adelaide have lost ground since last year,” it said.
For the record, Perth dropped from sixth spot to 32nd and Brissy dropped from tenth spot to 27th.
Somehow Sydney only dropped from 11th to 13th place though. Not sure how a city can be considered liveable when it’s virtually impossible to buy a house and finding somewhere open in the CBD on a Sunday night is like trying to complete a World of Warcraft quest. But hey, I’m not the expert I guess.
You might be wondering who was top of the list.
Why it was Vienna, the capital of Austria.
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Vienna won the top spot from Auckland in New Zealand, which slipped from first to 34th place this year. Similarly to Australia, New Zealand tanked in the ranks because of its COVID restrictions.
The report said both Australia and New Zealand’s COVID waves in 2021 meant they “no longer have a COVID advantage over well-vaccinated European and Canadian cities” per the ABC. So we can blame Omicron for this, too.
No matter what the Economist Intelligence Unit thinks, Rad-elaide (as the locals call it) will always be number one in my heart. Maybe it’s time they built another big fucking bird for guaranteed top spot placement.
