Vancouver ranked 7th most livable city in the world: Monocle survey

A new survey by Monocle magazine and AzkoNobel has ranked Vancouver as the seventh most livable city in the world and the most liveable city in North America.

Canada’s third largest city soared to a new spot in the rankings, up from 15th place in 2014 and 19th place in 2013, thanks to a number of new metrics used to evaluate the quality of life within a major urban centre.

“We’ve added 22 new metrics, including several that look at housing and the cost of living, from the price of a three-bed house to the cost of a coffee, glass of wine and decent lunch,” said Monocle editor-in-chief Tyler Brûlé in a release. “We’ve also put more emphasis on access to the outdoors.”

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While housing and cost of living metrics likely went against Vancouver’s favour, the Monocle ranking gave “intangibles” a greater emphasis including culture, closing time of bars, price of dining out, and proximity to seas, lakes and mountains.

With a greater focus on these metrics, Vancouver, Paris, Lisbon and Geneva have risen in the rankings while Helsinki, Munich and Zurich have taken a fall.

Tokyo and Vienna topped this year’s list and Berlin leaped 11 places to take third place. Melbourne and Sydney, cities that traditionally rank high in other quality of life surveys, were ranked fourth and fifth respectively.

Toronto and Calgary, cities that have crept up in other lists in recent years, were not in this year’s Monocle’s Top 25 list. Portland was the only other North American city to make the list.

Earlier this year, a Mercer survey listed Vancouver as the fifth most liveable city and the most liveable city in North America. The latest edition of The Economist’s ranking (August 2014) places Vancouver in the third spot.

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Monocle World’s Quality of Life Survey 2015

1. Tokyo, Japan
2. Vienna, Austria
3. Berlin, Germany
4. Melbourne, Australia
5. Sydney, Australia
6. Stockholm, Sweden
7. Vancouver, Canada
8. Helsinki, Finland
9. Munich, Germany
10.= Zurich, Switzerland
10.= Copenhagen, Denmark
12. Fukuoka, Japan
13. Singapore
14. Kyoto, Japan
15. Paris, France
16. Madrid, Spain
17. Auckland, New Zealand
18. Lisbon, Portugal
19. Hong Kong, China
20. Amsterdam, Netherlands
21. Hamburg, Germany
22. Geneva, Switzerland
23. Oslo, Norway
24. Barcelona, Spain
25. Portland, U.S.A.

“=” indicates a tie in ranking