Sydney - Sydney has fallen out of the list of the world's top ten most liveable cities due to the “perceived threat of terrorism,” a report said.
Sydney slipped into 11th place, while its southern rival Melbourne came first overall, the Liveability Ranking Index by the Economist Intelligence Unit determined.
“Melbourne in Australia remains the most liveable of the 140 cities surveyed, very closely followed by the Austrian capital, Vienna,” the report said.
Melbourne's mayor, Robert Doyle, said retaining the title for the sixth year in a row was a fantastic accolade and that the city did not take the title for granted.
“We are constantly planning and implementing policies that will continue to improve our quality of life,” Doyle said.
Canada's Vancouver and Toronto were ranked third and fourth in the index and Calgary tied with Australia's Adelaide for the fifth.
The report said the best cities were “mid-sized cities in wealthier countries with a relatively low population density,” which could “foster a range of recreational activities without leading to high crime levels or overburdened infrastructure.”
It also found that US cities had seen massive score declines in recent months.
“This partly stems from unrest related to a number of deaths of black people either in police custody or shot on the street despite being unarmed in the past couple of years,” the report said.
At the bottom of the index, the five least liveable cities were Syria's Damascus, Libya's Tripoli, Nigeria's Lagos, Bangladesh's Dhaka and Papua New Guinea's Port Moresby.
DPA
World's top ten most liveable cities
1. Melbourne
2. Vienna
3. Vancouver
4. Toronto
5. Calgary
6. Adelaide
7. Perth
8. Auckland
10. Helsinki