The usual caveat that it's meant to measure a "hardship index" for companies relocating workers. I wouldn't use it as a measure for where to best move to as there are many factors it doesn't measure (such as how good the job market is, how expensive cost of living is, etc)- aside from maybe preferring cities in the approximate top (80+ out of 100), which is mostly "nice" cities in the developed world (no surprise there).<p>Assuming you're anyway not contemplating moving to Nairobi or Tehran I don't think this really gives much useful info as you can't really say you'd like life in a city with a slightly better score than another, it only matter if the gap is large.<p>E.g. I spent 8 years living in Vienna followed by 10 years in Berlin (a bit further below in the rating) and I don't feel my quality of life is at all lower here (I much prefer living in Berlin)- the main difference I notice is that Vienna is much better at cleaning up the trash from public spaces than Berlin, and a smaller city is generally easier to navigate.
These rankings miss one fundamental factor - availability of housing to rent and buy. Once accounted, the ranking would probably inverse. No "livability" matters or makes sense when one has all their possessions in two suitcases and have to move out with one day notice during the first one year or longer.
> But stability deteriorated elsewhere. Striking workers in Greece, pension protests in France and deadly clashes in Israel and Peru reduced scores in those countries.<p>???<p>Who is this list meant for? Seems kind of odd to penalize France because of pension protests<p>Am an American so might be lacking details, but my understanding is that Macron decided to raise the retirement age which was highly unpopular, and people were pissed off because of it? How do those protests make France "less livable"? If anything, it makes it more livable by my book.<p>Seems like Economist is just airing political grievances. Usually whenever I see these lists (e.g. "livability index", "democracy index", etc), the list maker shuffles around the top 10-20 countries in order to grind some political axe
If you are more interested in best cities by digital nomads, I much prefer nomadlist [1]. Main criteria is safety, cost, internet, fun. You can also add additional filters.<p>[1] <a href="https://nomadlist.com/safe-exceptional-places" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://nomadlist.com/safe-exceptional-places</a>
Tashkent is sure in Asia and not eastern Europe. These kind of mistakes make me annoyed for some reason.<p>Hardship indices are useful. Beijing was considered a no-hardship posting by the state department but they had to bring it back a hard ship bonus circa 2015 because of the air pollution. Not sure where it is now, but QOL effects living in some places is real.
Interesting that <i>none</i> of the top-ten are in the US, and only two are in North America (Vancouver and Toronto). The former has a notoriously tight housing market.