Safety and security, substantial economy and solid infrastructure, affordability and the presence of unity and love are the factors weighed in choosing this year’s best and worst cities of the world. The recent survey was headed by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Every one of the 140 biggest cities worldwide was measured through the factors mentioned above to determine their places in the list.

EIU’s editor of the survey, John Copestake, revealed that civil unrest has factored significantly in this year’s ranking of cities.

“Livability often seems static on a year-to-year basis. But looking at movement over a longer period we can see some significant trends emerging. While the threat of terror had a defining influence on livability in the last decade, we can clearly see that civil unrest has already had a significant impact on livability in this decade,” he stated in an interview with business magazine, Forbes. That is why it was no surprise when the list’s topnotch were those cities that had the least crime rate, thus, deemed the safest and the most peaceful compared to their counterparts.

The Cream of the Crop

Three Canadian cities managed to snatch three spots in the list’s top five. Australia also places two of its cities in the topnotch with Austria’s capital city completing the “cream of the crop”.

Fifth Best Cities – Adelaide, Australia and Calgary of Canada tied for this rank. Calgary had scored higher on the stability of its economy yet flopped on its cultural and environmental aspect; admittedly, it is quite cold in this city.

Fourth Best – This honor goes to another Canadian city, Toronto. Dubbed as the “Dubai of North America” with its skyscrapers, it is no wonder it landed this spot.

Third Spot – Vancouver, another Canadian city, lands on this spot. Its bustling economy is due to its lure on filmmakers who look at it as an ideal place for filming given it does possess an amazing location in the Pacific. Vancouver also has one of the lowest crime rates worldwide at 2.5 crimes in every 100,000 people.

Second Best – Austria’s capital city, Vienna, is honored as the second most livable city in the entire world. This is not surprising since the city itself is a merger of the old and the new world. Besides, it can be deemed as the safest place to live in since out of its 1.7 million recorded population in 2010, only 18 murders were reported equivalent to a very low 1.6 percent crime rate.

Top One – Melbourne, Australia emerged as this year’s most livable city. The city has a slightly higher crime rate than Vancouver – 2.7 percent for every 100,000 dwellers – but it makes up for that with its great climate, infrastructure and educational offerings.

Where Are the World’s Big Cities?

Not one American city has made it to the top in the list, understandably, with all the economic and political issues the country is currently going through. Big cities like New York, London, Tokyo and Paris also suffer from congestion, high crime rates which can be attributed to overpopulation, rising poverty and transportation difficulties which make living in these places a lot more expensive.