As a global city, Singapore is no stranger to being on “best” lists. Recent accolades it has picked up include the country with the “best business environment” (EIU), “freest economy in the world” (The Heritage Foundation), fourth most competitive economy in the world (International Institute for Management Development), and eighth place in Schroders’s global city index.

Therefore, it was with little surprise that it did not make it into the top ten cities in the latest Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) ranking of the most liveable cities in the world. The Southeast Asian city did however sneak into the top among Asia-Pacific cities in tenth place.

This year’s EIU liveability index, which provides a snapshot of the most, and least, desirable cities to live in, recorded the highest global average score in 15 years, showing that living conditions in cities across the world have fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic which disrupted lives and impacted lifestyles.

The index rates living conditions in 173 cities across five categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.

Of the categories covered by the survey, only the stability score dropped on average in 2023. Although stability scores in many eastern European cities, which fell in 2022 because they are close to Ukraine, rose this year, stability deteriorated elsewhere.

Stability scores were negatively affected by striking workers and protests in various European cities like Greece and France as well as deadly clashes in Israel and Peru. The EIU said that “inflation could lead to further falls in stability scores, and thus damage overall liveability scores, in many parts of the world over the next year.”

The index revealed that cities in the Asia-Pacific region have rebounded the most with eight of the ten biggest upward movers coming from the region. New Zealand’s Wellington rose 35 spots to take 23rd place, while Auckland rose 25 places to land at number 10. Hanoi, Vietnam moved up 20 places to 129, whereas Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia jumped 19 positions.

Post-pandemic improvements in education and healthcare led to an improvement in scores across Asia. These two factors are also the main reason scores in Africa and the Middle East rose.

The EIU named Vienna, the “City of Music”, also known as the “City of Dreams”, the most liveable city in the world for the fourth time in five years.