Posted Tue Jun 9, 2009 8:18am AEST
Updated Tue Jun 9, 2009 8:27am AEST

(ABC News: Lloyd Young)

Australian cities hold three of the top 10 spots in the Economist Intelligence Unit's liveability poll, which ranks cities on five factors: health-care, stability, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

Melbourne ranked the highest of any Australian city, coming third in the poll recognising 140 cities.

Perth was equal fifth with Calgary in Canada, Sydney shared ninth place with Zurich in Switzerland, Adelaide in 11th place and Brisbane 16th on the list.

Vancouver is the world's easiest city to live in while Harare is the toughest, the survey said, putting Europe and north America at the top while many African and Asian cities struggle behind.

In ratings ranging from zero (intolerable) to 100 per cent (ideal), Vancouver scores 98 per cent, "benefiting from strong Canadian infrastructure," while Harare languishes on 37.5 "thanks to the unfolding crisis in Zimbabwe".

At the top end of the global easy-living scale, Vienna is in second place followed by Melbourne, Toronto, Perth, Calgary, Helsinki and Geneva, with Sydney and Zurich in joint ninth place.

By: mag.tide
10/06/2009
3:43 am

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The Japanese city of Osaka is just outside the top 10 on 13th place, and Tokyo is at joint 19th with Frankfurt.

European cities where life is generally not hard include Stockholm and Hamburg, Germany in 14th place, as well as Paris in 17th spot, Frankfurt in 19th, Copenhagen in 21st and Berlin in 22nd.

"With the exception of high scores in Australasia and some Asian centres, most of the better-scoring locations are based in the more developed regions of western Europe and North America," said the study.

A string of US cities fill the rankings from 30th to 50th position - Washington DC in 35th place, Los Angeles in 48th - followed by another smattering of European conurbations: London is in 51st spot, Rome 52nd while Athens has western Europe's lowest showing in 63rd spot, on 81.2 per cent.

Any city with a score above 80 per cent "will have few, if any, challenges to living standards," said the survey.

By: mag.tide
10/06/2009
3:44 am

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Not so easy

Lower down the orders come Moscow in 69th spot, Beijing in 76th, Johannesburg on joint 92nd with Brazil's Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, and Bangkok in 100th place.

The bottom rankings are occupied by a swathe of Asian and African cities: Manila in 108th, New Delhi in joint 114th spot with Cairo, Mumbai in 120th, Nairobi 122nd and Lusaka 126th.

Cities scoring below 50 per cent - which "present daily challenges to living standards" according to the authors - include Tehran in 129th place, Karachi, Pakistan in 135th and Lagos in 136th.

The bottom three are Algiers, Dhaka and Harare - where Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe called for leaders to "make Africa a continent of opportunity for all its people", as the country struggles to emerge from an economic meltdown.

By: mag.tide
10/06/2009
3:45 am

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http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/09/2592 740.htm

By: mag.tide
10/06/2009
3:49 am

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Lets not destroy a very enviable way of life,

Yeah we have problems-
but far less than almost everywhere Else.

Melbourne is the only other city that polled ahead of Perth.

By: king_bast
10/06/2009
10:15 am

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I'm sure we polled highly because of our DLS-free status.

By: tickfen
10/06/2009
10:50 am

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ABSOLUTELY....lol

By: mag.tide
10/06/2009
11:37 am

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And Our Weathergirls of course.

By: semz0871
10/06/2009
11:52 am

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read this survey and almost gagged.
where do the people doing this survey get their info from? glossy travel brochures?

they obviously haven't lived here!
wonder what would happen if they did a survey on Perth nightlife and went to that adolescent pukefest called Northbridge?

By: mag.tide
10/06/2009
11:56 am

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Of course whingers would whinge no matter where they live.

By: mag.tide
10/06/2009
11:58 am

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Maybe they should go for an extended stay in Pakistan or Zimbabwe to see how green the grass is on the other side.

By: semz0871
10/06/2009
12:00 pm

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or maybe they should go to lockridge for the night

By: mag.tide
10/06/2009
12:06 pm

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Ok my bad,

For those of you that live in lockridge-
Think on the bright side..it can only get better.

By: king_bast
10/06/2009
12:11 pm

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one day, you might be movin' on up to koondoola.

By: mag.tide
10/06/2009
1:13 pm

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City life I'm told is sooo much better than country life i'm told so often here on yahoo-

then why is it the city folk that do all the complaining huh?

By: king_bast
10/06/2009
1:43 pm

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"City life I'm told is sooo much better than country life i'm told so often here on yahoo"

nah fk that...Soon as my nest-egg is sufficient, I'm movin to the country. And gonna eat a lot of peaches.

By: mag.tide
10/06/2009
1:55 pm

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You jus keep ya hands orf all my country Peaches.

By: king_bast
10/06/2009
2:01 pm

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I bet my Angelas ass is like a peach....

By: mag.tide
10/06/2009
2:22 pm

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Be more like Fruit smoothie by the time I've finished with it.

By: king_bast
10/06/2009
2:29 pm

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By god I've got it!
My move to the country may happen sooner rather than later, on the back of my latest scheme...I'm wriritng a book called 'Angela's asses' - featuring nothing more than a collection of photographs of tsunny's rear, in various degrees of undress.
It'll sell through the roof!

I trust I can mark you down for a copy or 3?

By: mag.tide
10/06/2009
2:34 pm

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Hehe no prob,

But it seems Ralph and the media corporations that they are connected to own her ass,

Have to be a pirate job.

By: mag.tide
10/06/2009
2:35 pm

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Do an Image search on Google-
Not much comes up.