The 2025 Global Liveability Index: Stability's Shadow in an Era of Stagnation

Key Takeaways

• #1 Copenhagen — Overtook Vienna with perfect Stability (100), Education (100), and Infrastructure (100) scores
• Global average unchanged at 76.1 — Healthcare and education gains canceled out by stability declines
• Stability is the critical swing factor — Vienna lost the top spot solely because terrorism scares dropped its Stability from 100 to 95
• Top 10 dominated by mid-sized cities — No megacities (NYC #69, London #54); smaller cities are safer and more manageable
• Middle East rising — Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia jumped 13 places; Gulf states are investing heavily in healthcare
• Canada falling — Calgary dropped from #5 to #18; the healthcare system is under strain across all Canadian cities

What Does the 2025 Global Liveability Index Reveal?

The 2025 Global Liveability Index from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) describes a world in precarious balance. For the first time in four years, a new city sits at the top of the ranking: Copenhagen, Denmark, has displaced Vienna, Austria, which held first place for three consecutive years.¹

That change at the top is the most visible part of a wider story. The leadership change matters, but the clearer finding from the 2025 survey is that the global average liveability score has stalled. Across the 173 cities evaluated, the average is unchanged from 2024, holding at 76.1 out of a possible 100.³

That flat number is misleading. It does not show a world that has settled into a comfortable equilibrium. It shows one pulled between opposing forces. On one side, the index records continued, if marginal, improvements in Healthcare, Education, and Infrastructure across the globe.⁵

These reflect a slowing but sustained recovery of public services and a return to normal after the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The gains are most notable in developing economies, especially across the Middle East and North Africa, where strategic investment is paying off.⁵

On the other side, those gains are almost exactly offset by a broad decline in the Stability category.⁴ This is not a minor fluctuation but a wide global trend driven by several factors at once: rising geopolitical tensions, increased terrorism threats, widespread civil unrest, and persistent housing crises.³ The effect of falling stability reaches from the highest-ranked cities in Western Europe to developing urban centers in Asia.

This is the central tension in the 2025 report: improving services cancelled out by declining stability. It suggests the world may be reaching a turning point. The predictable rebound of "soft" infrastructure such as healthcare and education after the pandemic may have largely run its course.

The harder, less predictable factors of social cohesion and geopolitical security are now the main forces shaping the quality of urban life. This report works through the findings, starting with the top and bottom rankings, then examining the five core pillars of liveability.

It then looks at the divergent trends across key global regions before turning to what these findings mean for corporations, policymakers, and global talent.

Which Cities Rank Highest and Lowest in 2025?

The 2025 rankings show both consistency and real change at the top of the index. The elite cities are still mostly familiar names from Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, but the reshuffle at the very top shows how much perceived safety and security now count.⁷

Copenhagen takes the top spot from Vienna

Copenhagen reached first place on the strength of its scores across several metrics. The Danish capital posted an overall score of 98.0 out of 100, with perfect scores of 100 in Stability, Education, and Infrastructure.²

That mix of strong social stability, top-rated education, and reliable infrastructure was enough to win. Copenhagen's overall score of 98.0 is identical to its 2024 score, when it ranked second.⁵ Its 2025 win was therefore not the result of its own improvement, but of holding steady while stability declined elsewhere.

The city that lost the top spot, Vienna, fell to a joint second place alongside Zurich, Switzerland.² The Austrian capital's overall score dropped from 98.9 in 2024 to 97.1 in 2025.⁵ This came down to a single factor: a sharp drop in its Stability score from a perfect 100 in 2024 to 95.0 this year.⁵ The downgrade was not a systemic breakdown but a direct consequence of several high-profile security incidents.

These included a bomb threat that led to the cancellation of a Taylor Swift concert in the summer of 2024 and the discovery of a planned terrorist attack on a city train station in 2025.⁵ Even so, Vienna's core strengths held, with perfect 100-point scores for Healthcare, Education, and Infrastructure.⁵

Vienna's case shows a new dynamic at the top of the index. For cities that already score near-perfectly on public services and infrastructure, perceived safety has become the main and most volatile factor in their rank. A long-held reputation for excellence can be undermined quickly by a few isolated but significant security threats, which shows how fragile liveability is in an uncertain world.

The top ten and the mid-sized city pattern

The rest of the top ten is made up of cities that consistently offer a high quality of life. After Copenhagen, Vienna, and Zurich come Melbourne, Australia, in fourth, and Geneva, Switzerland, in fifth. Sydney, Australia, moved up to sixth, while Japan's Osaka and New Zealand's Auckland share seventh. Adelaide, the third Australian city in the group, ranks ninth, and Vancouver, Canada, rounds out the top ten.²

The makeup of this group follows a clear pattern. The top-ranked cities are mostly medium-sized urban centers in wealthy, politically stable, and often neutral or non-confrontational nations.

The large global cities are notably absent from the very top of the list: New York ranks 69th, London 54th, and Tokyo does not appear near the top.² This suggests that extreme size and global economic or political centrality may be turning into liabilities for liveability. Such megacities often face greater infrastructure strain, higher crime rates, and more exposure to social unrest and terrorism, which weigh on their scores, particularly in the Stability and Infrastructure categories.³

The ideal city by the 2025 index is large enough to offer a wide range of cultural amenities and economic opportunities, but small and cohesive enough to stay manageable, safe, and efficient.

Sources: 5 Note: 2024 rank and score data for Adelaide were not available in the provided materials.

Cities at the bottom of the index

At the other end of the table, the world's least liveable cities are consistently those scarred by war, conflict, and the collapse of state institutions. For several years now, Damascus, Syria, has stayed at the very bottom of the index, and 2026 is no exception.⁴

The city's score is an unchanged 30.7, reflecting the deep and lasting damage from years of civil war. Even a dramatic regime change in Syria in December 2024, which toppled the Baathist government after 61 years, has not yet improved living conditions in any measurable way.⁵ Scores for stability and healthcare remain very poor, which shows that recovery from conflict on this scale is a generational task.

Just above Damascus is Tripoli, Libya, another city dealing with political instability and violence.² The rest of the bottom ten includes Dhaka, Bangladesh; Karachi, Pakistan; Algiers, Algeria; Harare, Zimbabwe; and Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.² The Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, also remains near the bottom, a direct result of the ongoing war with Russia, which has devastated its infrastructure and stability.

The gap between the top and bottom of the index is more than 65 points between Copenhagen and Damascus. It is a measure of how unequal quality of life and basic security are across the world.

How Are the Five Liveability Pillars Performing?

The overall liveability score is a composite of five categories, each weighted by its importance. Looking at global performance within each pillar shows the forces shaping urban life in 2025.

Stability (weight 25%): why stability scores are falling

Stability is the most important and most volatile category in the 2025 index. It is the only pillar whose global average declined, and that decline is the main reason the overall global liveability score did not improve.⁴ It comes not from a single cause but from several connected global threats.

• Geopolitical tensions. The risk of military conflict has directly affected the stability scores of several Asian cities. In Taiwan, growing uncertainty over China's intentions in the Taiwan Strait has lowered scores, while in India, a major terrorist attack and the military confrontation with Pakistan that followed have had a similar effect.² The escalation of the Israeli-Gaza conflict has also had knock-on effects, contributing to a lower stability score for Tehran, Iran.⁵
• Civil unrest and terrorism. Western Europe, despite its high rankings, is not immune. Widespread rioting in the United Kingdom in 2024, fueled by anti-immigrant misinformation, led to significant drops in the stability scores and overall ranks of London, Manchester, and Edinburgh.² Vienna's demotion from the top spot was a direct result of terrorism scares.⁵
• Social and structural issues. In the United States, low stability scores are a chronic problem. The EIU attributes this to a "greater incidence of social unrest, which is often rooted in the country's racial inequalities, as well as weak gun-control laws that mean crime is often violent and fatal".³ Widespread housing crises in many developed nations are also cited as a contributing factor to social dissatisfaction and instability.³

The systemic nature of these threats suggests the decline in stability is not a temporary anomaly. It reflects a more fragile and polarized global environment, where economic precarity, political polarization, and geopolitical conflict reinforce each other and make for a difficult backdrop for urban life.

Healthcare (weight 20%): improving in the Gulf, declining in Canada

The global average score for Healthcare improved marginally in 2025, but that aggregate figure hides two very different stories.⁵

One is rapid improvement in the Middle East. Cities in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have driven the rise in the global average, as oil-rich governments invest heavily to expand public healthcare systems and attract private investment into building advanced hospitals.⁵

This is a core part of national economic diversification strategies such as Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, and it shows directly in the significant rank improvement of cities like Al Khobar.²

The other story is that some of the most developed Western nations are seeing their once-unmatched healthcare systems decline. All four Canadian cities surveyed, Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal, saw their healthcare scores fall this year.²

This is attributed to sustained pressure on the country's decentralized national health service, with unresolved funding debates, chronic staff shortages, and long waiting lists for procedures and checkups all adding strain.²

Together these point to a possible global rebalancing. Mature, historically strong public systems are showing signs of fraying under financial and demographic pressure, while emerging economies are using resource wealth to build healthcare capacity quickly, potentially creating new centers of medical excellence.

Culture and Environment (weight 25%): the quality-of-life differentiator

This category covers everything from cultural amenities and sporting facilities to green space and climate. It is a key differentiator for top-tier cities and a major factor in what makes them attractive to talent.⁷

Cities that do well here, such as Auckland (97.9) and Vancouver (97.2), offer a quality of life beyond basic services.⁵ In an era when skilled professionals can work from anywhere, an active cultural scene, access to nature, and strong environmental policies matter more and more for attracting and keeping talent.⁷

Osaka shows how much this category counts. The Japanese city posted perfect scores in Stability, Healthcare, and Education, yet a relatively lower score of 86.8 in Culture & Environment holds it back from a higher overall ranking.⁸

This shows that while safety and services are foundational, a rich and appealing environment is needed for a city to reach the very top of the liveability ranking.

Education (weight 10%): a baseline requirement for top cities

Like healthcare, the global average for education improved marginally in 2025.⁵ For the world's most liveable cities, a top-tier education system is a basic requirement. Every single city in the top ten scored a perfect 100 in the Education category.⁵

That makes education a baseline pillar for elite liveability: it does not separate the best from the very best, but its absence would be an immediate disqualifier. By region, North America remains the world's top performer in education, although the EIU warns that this position is vulnerable to potential public spending cuts in the United States.³

Infrastructure (weight 20%): strong at the top, with housing pressure underneath

The Infrastructure category, which covers road networks, public transport, international links, housing, and utilities, also recorded a slight improvement in its global average.⁵

As expected, the world's most liveable cities do well here. Copenhagen and Vienna lead with perfect scores of 100, reflecting their strong public transport and high-quality housing and energy supply.⁵ But even in this area of strength, pressures are visible.

The 2024 report had already flagged acute housing crises in many top-ranked cities in Canada and Australia as a concern.⁹ These problems persist, creating affordability challenges and social strain that can indirectly affect stability, even where the headline infrastructure scores stay high.³

Which Regions Are Rising and Falling?

The 2025 Global Liveability Index shows a world on divergent paths. Some regions are holding their dominance while facing new pressures; others are making rapid strategic gains.

Western Europe: still dominant, but under strain

Western Europe remains the world's most liveable region, with a heavy presence in the top ten, including the top spot and four of the top five positions.⁵

The region posts the highest scores in four of the five liveability categories, beaten only by North America in Education.⁵ But this position is showing signs of stress. The region's average score for Stability has fallen since 2024, reflecting a troubling rise in terrorism threats, politically motivated riots, and social tensions.⁴

The clearest examples are the cities of the United Kingdom. After a period of significant civil unrest in 2024 linked to anti-immigrant sentiment, all UK cities surveyed saw their rankings fall. London dropped from 45th to 54th, Manchester from 43rd to 52nd, and Edinburgh from 59th to 64th.²

This shows that even in highly developed and historically stable nations, social cohesion is fragile, and its erosion can hit liveability quickly and measurably.

North America: Canada's service strain, the US stability deficit

North America's overall liveability score slipped slightly in 2025, driven by distinct but equally concerning problems in Canada and the United States.³ The region's performance shows a clear divergence: Canada's main challenge is the strain on its public services, while the United States' core problem is a deficit of social and political stability.

Canada's service strain. The biggest faller in the entire 2025 index among top-tier cities was Calgary, which dropped from 5th in 2024 to 18th this year.² Toronto also fell, from 12th to 16th.²

This sharp decline is directly linked to lower scores in the Healthcare category for all four Canadian cities in the survey.² The country's much-praised public healthcare model is under severe pressure from underfunding and staff shortages, leading to a measurable decline in the quality and accessibility of care.²

The US stability deficit. US cities continue to be held back by poor performance in the Stability category. Not one of the 21 US metros analyzed made it into the top 20 globally.³ The most liveable US city is Honolulu, Hawaii, at a distant 23rd overall, followed by smaller or medium-sized cities such as Atlanta (29th) and Pittsburgh (joint 30th).²

These cities consistently outperform megacities like New York (69th) and Los Angeles (57th), which face even greater stability and infrastructure challenges.³ The EIU researchers are clear about the cause, citing high rates of social unrest, deep-rooted racial inequalities, and the prevalence of violent crime linked to weak gun control laws.³

That said, 14 US cities saw their rankings improve this year, with Miami, Portland, Indianapolis, and Charlotte each moving up three places.³ But this should not be read as genuine progress.

Analysts note that these cities were largely "promoted" because other cities around the world, particularly in Canada and the UK, fell further.

The underlying diagnosis for the US remains negative, with chronic stability issues unsolved and EIU experts warning of possible future downgrades from proposed public spending cuts on education and healthcare.³

Sources:.² Note: Comprehensive 2026 score data for all listed cities was not available. "Lowered" indicates a decline from 2024 as noted in the source material.

Asia-Pacific: a region of extremes

The Asia-Pacific region is defined by its range, holding some of the world's most liveable cities alongside some of its most challenged.⁴ Australian cities do exceptionally well, with Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide all in the top ten. New Zealand's Auckland and Japan's Osaka also hold elite status.² But the region is also on the front line of geopolitical risk.

As noted above, stability scores for cities in India and Taiwan have been downgraded because of the heightened threat of military conflict.² At the same time, some cities are improving markedly. Jakarta, Indonesia, for example, climbed 10 places in the rankings on the back of an improved stability score, reflecting progress in reducing the city's vulnerability to terrorism.

The Middle East: strategic investment paying off

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region recorded the largest gains in overall liveability in the 2025 index.⁶ This improvement is almost entirely driven by advances in healthcare and education within Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

The standout globally is Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, the biggest mover up the ranks, climbing 13 places from 148th to 135th.² This rapid rise is a direct result of the kingdom's Vision 2030 plan, which is pouring vast resources into diversifying the economy and upgrading social infrastructure. The trajectories of Canadian and Saudi Arabian cities make a striking contrast.

One is a mature, high-quality public service model showing signs of decay under pressure; the other is a resource-rich, state-directed development model building its social infrastructure quickly from a lower base. This raises a real question for businesses: invest in locations with high but possibly declining standards, or in those with lower but rapidly improving ones?

Why Does Liveability Matter for Businesses and Talent?

The 2025 Global Liveability Index is more than a ranking of pleasant places to live. For business leaders, policymakers, and human resources executives, it has become a working tool for strategic planning, risk management, and talent acquisition in a globalized world.

The talent-magnet effect

With remote work and cross-border collaboration now common, competition for skilled talent is intense. In that setting, a city's quality of life has moved from a nice-to-have perk to a real competitive advantage.⁷ Highly skilled professionals, who have more choice than ever about where they live and work, increasingly weigh factors beyond salary. The core metrics of liveability, public safety, reliable transport, good schooling for their children, and accessible healthcare, are now major drivers of relocation decisions.⁷

A city like Copenhagen, with strong social protections, green policies, and a safe environment, can pull in ambitious global workers who might otherwise pick a traditional economic hub. For companies, understanding these preferences is central to building effective staffing strategies. The liveability index lets employers anticipate and respond to what employees want, informing decisions about where to set up targeted hiring projects or new remote offices to attract strong candidates.

A lens for risk assessment and site selection

The 2025 index shows that liveability is now tied closely to corporate risk management. The growing volatility of the Stability category in particular means the index now works as an early warning system for social and political instability that could directly affect business operations, supply chains, and investments.

A senior executive can read the index not just to find the best location for an expatriate assignment, but to understand regional risk profiles in detail. The falling stability scores in Western Europe due to social unrest, or the downgrades in Asia due to military tensions, are important data points for any company with a global footprint.⁵

The improving scores in the MENA region, driven by strategic government investment, may point to new opportunities for expansion into markets that are becoming more stable and better serviced.⁶ The index gives a data-driven framework for smarter, more resilient decisions about where to site new offices, manufacturing facilities, and regional headquarters.

Managing global mobility

The strategic problem for many multinational companies is the growing gap between the world's most liveable cities and its largest economic centers. A company may be headquartered in London (54th) but find that the software engineer it wants to hire would rather live in Melbourne (4th). This gap creates real logistical and administrative challenges.

International relocation is complex. It involves disparate work permit and visa regulations, complicated international and local tax laws, and employment contracts that have to comply with multiple legal frameworks.⁷ These bureaucratic hurdles can cause costly delays, compliance risks, and a frustrating experience for the employee.

This is where an Employer of Record (EOR) becomes useful. An EOR is a third-party organization that acts as the legal employer for staff in a foreign country, handling payroll, benefits, taxes, and visa applications.⁷ This model lets a company hire talent quickly and compliantly in a high-liveability city like Zurich without setting up a costly and time-consuming local legal entity.

The rise of EORs is the market's direct response to the problem the liveability index highlights, giving companies the agility to build a distributed global workforce that bridges the gap between where talent wants to be and where the business needs to operate.

Concluding Analysis and Forward Outlook

The 2025 Global Liveability Index shows a world at a standstill that is anything but static. The flat global average of 76.1 masks a churning mix of progress and decay, where improvements in public services are cancelled out by the spreading and growing threat of instability. Copenhagen's rise to the top, at Vienna's expense, came from resilience rather than improvement: a clear signal that in the current global climate, perceived safety is the deciding factor in liveability.

Looking ahead, Stability is set to remain the most volatile and decisive category shaping the urban experience. The connected drivers of its decline, geopolitical conflict, social polarization, civil unrest, and economic precarity, are not passing issues but deep structural challenges. EIU analysts give a pessimistic outlook, suggesting the current pressures on stability are unlikely to ease soon, with ongoing conflicts and a record number of elections globally likely to fuel further polarization and unrest.¹¹

The regional trajectories identified in this report are likely to continue. Western Europe will face an ongoing battle to defend its top-tier status against the corrosion of internal social and political strains. North America is at a critical point, facing a test of its fundamental social contract in the strain on Canada's healthcare system and the deep-seated stability issues in the United States. The upward path of the MENA region offers a compelling model of state-led development, but its long-term success will depend on the sustainability of its economic diversification and social reforms.

Finally, longer-term threats remain. Climate change poses a significant risk to the Environment component of the index; the EIU notes that recent floods in Jakarta are a warning for the future liveability of low-lying coastal cities.

The 2025 report redefines what the ideal global city looks like for the 21st century. It is no longer simply a city that is prosperous, cultured, and well-serviced. The ideal city of the future is, above all, resilient: a city that can not only provide a high quality of life and top-rated services but also manage and absorb the shocks of an unstable and unpredictable world.

Works cited

1. www.accuweather.com, accessed June 30, 2025, https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/worlds-most-liveable-city-for-2025-revealed/1787714#:~:text=Copenhagen%20has%20claimed%20the%20top,%2C%20stability%2C%20infrastructure%20and%20environment.
2. World's most liveable city for 2026 revealed - AccuWeather, accessed June 30, 2025, https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/worlds-most-liveable-city-for-2025-revealed/1787714
3. Map Shows Most Liveable Cities In US 2026 - Newsweek, accessed June 30, 2025, https://www.newsweek.com/map-shows-most-liveable-cities-us-2025-2086556
4. World's Most Liveable Cities in 2026: Discover the Cities With the Top Quality of Life | ArchDaily, accessed June 30, 2025, https://www.archdaily.com/1031399/worlds-most-liveable-cities-in-2025-discover-the-cities-with-the-top-quality-of-life
5. The Global Liveability Index 2026 - RTL, accessed June 30, 2025, https://download.rtl.lu/2025/06/17/543eec5f5ab81dba3379d742d5858001.pdf
6. EIU Global Liveability Index 2026 ... - The Economist Group, accessed June 30, 2025, https://www.economistgroup.com/press-centre/economist-intelligence/eiu-global-liveability-index-2025-copenhagen-replaces-vienna-as-worlds-most
7. Understanding the EIU Global Liveability Index 2026 - INS Global, accessed June 30, 2025, https://ins-globalconsulting.com/news-post/eiu-global-liveability/
8. Only one Asian city makes it into world's top 10 most liveable cities - VnExpress International, accessed June 30, 2025, https://e.vnexpress.net/news/business/economy/only-one-asian-city-makes-it-into-world-s-top-10-most-liveable-cities-4907996.html
9. The Global Liveability Index - LiveWire Calgary, accessed June 30, 2025, https://livewirecalgary.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/The-Global-Liveability-Index-Summary-Report-final.pdf
10. Global Liveability Index - Wikipedia, accessed June 30, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Liveability_Index
11. EIU Global Liveability Index 2024: Vienna retains its position as the world's most liveable city for third consecutive year - The Economist Group, accessed June 30, 2025, https://www.economistgroup.com/press-centre/economist-intelligence/eiu-global-liveability-index-2024-vienna-retains-its-position-as-the-worlds
12. The world's most liveable cities for 2024 listed in new report | FOX 7 Austin, accessed June 30, 2025, https://www.fox7austin.com/news/world-most-liveable-cities-2024-report

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most liveable city in the world in 2025?

Copenhagen, Denmark is the most liveable city in 2025 according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Global Liveability Index, with a score of 98.0/100. It achieved perfect scores in Stability, Education, and Infrastructure. Vienna held the top spot for three years until 2025.

Why did Vienna lose the top ranking?

Vienna's Stability score dropped from 100 to 95 due to high-profile security incidents, including a bomb threat that cancelled Taylor Swift concerts and a foiled terrorist attack on a train station. This single-factor decline was enough to push it from #1 to joint #2.

Which cities improved the most in 2025?

Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia made the biggest jump, climbing 13 places from 148th to 135th, driven by massive healthcare and education investments under Vision 2030. Jakarta, Indonesia also rose 10 places due to improved stability.

Why are US cities ranked so low?

No US city ranks in the top 20. The EIU cites chronic stability issues including social unrest, racial inequalities, and weak gun control leading to violent crime. Honolulu ranks highest at #23; New York is #69, Los Angeles #57.

What is the least liveable city in 2025?

Damascus, Syria remains at the bottom with a score of 30.7/100, unchanged from previous years despite a regime change in December 2024. Tripoli (Libya), Dhaka (Bangladesh), and Kyiv (Ukraine) also rank near the bottom.

Sources

• Economist Intelligence Unit — Global Liveability Index 2025
• AccuWeather — World's Most Liveable City 2025
• Saudi Vision 2030

Last verified: March 2026