U.S. cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Boston just don't stack up against many of their international counterparts, according to a new ranking.
In comparison, Australian and Canadian cities are dominating as the most "livable" in the world, says the "The Global Liveability Report 2017."
The data came from the recent report by The Economist Intelligence Unit, which ranked 140 cities by looking at "30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories of stability, health care, culture and environment, education and infrastructure," according to EIU.
For the seventh year in a row, Melbourne came in on top with a score of 97.5 out of 100. It got perfect marks for health care, education and infrastructure. So did close second-place winner, Vienna, which ranked only slightly lower on culture and environment. Vancouver, the third-place city, scored 100 in the latter category.
Here are the top 10 "most liveable" cities according to "The Global Liveability Report 2017":
1. Melbourne, Australia
2. Vienna, Austria
3. Vancouver, Canada
4. Toronto, Canada
5. Calgary, Canada
6. Adelaide, Australia
7. Perth, Australia
8. Auckland, New Zealand
9. Helsinki, Finland
10. Hamburg, Germany
For Australia and Canada, the results are looking good. Each had three cities in the top 10. Those countries have also been ranked as two of the happiest in the world by the United Nations' World Happiness Report.
The United States missed the top 10, and some U.S. cities had falling scores due to "unrest related to a number of deaths of black people at the hands of police officers. In addition, the country has seen protests held in response to President Trump's policies and executive orders," says the report.
More cosmopolitan metros around the globe didn't make the cut because they can be "victims of their own success," according to the report. They can become overpopulated, and with big cities can come big problems.
"New York, London, Paris and Tokyo are all prestigious hubs with a wealth of recreational activities, but all suffer from higher levels of crime, congestion and public transport problems than are deemed comfortable," it says.
In contrast, the top-ranked cities were mid-sized and less populated.
"These can foster a range of recreational activities without leading to high crime levels or overburdened infrastructure," the report concluded.
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