The world’s most livable city in 2025 — longtime winner unseated and the US tanked in the rankings

The world’s most liveable city for 2025 has been revealed — and after a three-year run at the top of the list, Vienna was dethroned.

The annual list from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) ranked Copenhagen as the most liveable city in the world.

The EIU, a sister organization to The Economist magazine, rates 173 cities across five categories: health care, culture and environment, education, infrastructure and stability.

Denmark’s capital tops the overall ranking this year, being one of only six cities to get a perfect score in the stability category. It also received perfect scores in education and infrastructure, and an overall Index score of 98 out of 100.

While scores in the first four categories have either remained consistent or improved, according to the organization, scores in the stability category have been on the decline — which has to do with why Vienna, Austria, was bumped.

“Global liveability has remained flat over the past year, and as in 2024, scores for stability have declined at a global level,” Barsali Bhattacharyya, deputy industry director at EIU, said in a statement. “Pressure on stability has led Vienna to lose its position as the most liveable city after a three-year stint.”

From 2022 to 2024, the Austrian capital was deemed the most liveable city, but after two derailed terror attacks this year — one on a Taylor Swift concert and the other on a train station — the stability score, which looks at military conflict, civil unrest and terrorism, went down.

Vienna is now in second place, tied with Zurich, Switzerland. Rounding out the top five are Melbourne, Australia, and Geneva, Switzerland.

North America’s sole city to sneak into the top 10 was Vancouver, coming in just at 10th place. The highest-ranked US city on the list was Honolulu, Hawaii, which came in 23rd overall.

The Economist noted that smaller cities typically rank higher on the list, with only three cities in the top 20 having more than 6 million residents.

Tokyo, the world’s largest city, ranked 13th — but London and New York ranked in 54th and 69th place, respectively, due to high crime levels and threats of terrorism as well as congested roads.

“We’ve seen a trend where sort of smaller or medium-sized cities in the US actually do a lot better than the really big cities like New York or LA,” Bhattacharyya explained to CNN. “And that’s largely because of the strains on public services infrastructure.”

Top 10 most liveable cities in the world

1. Copenhagen, Denmark

2. Vienna, Austria (tie)

2. Zurich, Switzerland (tie)

4. Melbourne, Australia

5. Geneva, Switzerland

6. Sydney, Australia

7. Osaka, Japan (tie)

7. Auckland, New Zealand (tie)

9. Adelaide, Australia

10. Vancouver, Canada