Shanghai ranks an uninspiring 81st in new survey of the world’s most liveable cities
Suzhou, Beijing, and Tianjin all ranked higher than Shanghai. Not to mention Hong Kong and Taipei.
In a new worldwide liveability survey, China performed about how you’d expect and pretty much the same as it did last year.
Carried out by The Economist’s Intelligence Unit, the Global Liveability Index 2018 endeavors to find which places in the world have the best and worst living conditions by measuring 140 cities across 30 different qualitative and quantitative factors in five broad categories (Stability, Healthcare, Culture and environment, Education and Infrastructure).
In the end, the eight mainland Chinese cities surveyed all fell roughly in the same place, behind the cities of Japan and South Korea, but ahead of those in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
74. Suzhou 75. Beijing 77. Tianjin 81. Shanghai 82. Shenzhen 90. Dalian 95. Guangzhou 97. Qingdao
Compared with last year’s survey, some cities dropped a few spots, while others rose up a couple of places. Shanghai, on the other hand, stayed in place at #81.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong ranked 35th on the list (up 10 spots), while Taipei came in at 60th (up 2).
As far as mainland cities go, the results differ somewhat from those of a study conducted earlier this year by the Chinese Academy of Social Science which found that the most liveable city in mainland China was Shenzhen, despite the city’s sky-high real estate prices. Shanghai came in 2nd and Suzhou in 10th.
In case you’re thinking of moving to more liveable pastures, here’s the list’s top 10:
- Vienna, Austria
- Melbourne, Australia
- Osaka, Japan
- Calgary, Canada
- Sydney, Australia
- Vancouver, Canada
- Toronto, Canada
- Tokyo, Japan
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Adelaide, Australia