{"id":29195,"date":"2017-08-21T05:45:56","date_gmt":"2017-08-21T09:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=29195"},"modified":"2017-08-21T01:00:17","modified_gmt":"2017-08-21T05:00:17","slug":"cities-best-quality-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/08\/cities-best-quality-life\/","title":{"rendered":"What cities have the best quality of life?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"melbourne-2262233_1920\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The UK Economist\u00a0<\/em>has released its annual\u00a0\u00a0\u201cGlobal Livability Ranking<\/a>\u201d assessing the \u201cquality of life\u201d of the world\u2019s major cities. \u00a0Terrorist attacks and civil unrest\u2013including violent demonstrations in the U.S.\u2013have brought down the rankings of many cities. \u00a0Overall, the world\u2019s quality of life has declined from a score of 76.1% to 74.8% this year. \u00a0But there is a big reason to question this particular study, as well as other research just like it.<\/p>\n

\n

Here are the top ten cities with the world\u2019s highest quality of life, according to the study:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u00a0Melbourne, Australia<\/li>\n
  2. Vienna, Austria<\/li>\n
  3. Vancouver, Canada<\/li>\n
  4. Toronto, Canada<\/li>\n
  5. Calgary, Canada<\/li>\n
  6. Adelaide, Australia<\/li>\n
  7. Perth, Australia<\/li>\n
  8. Auckland, New Zealand<\/li>\n
  9. Helsinki, Finland<\/li>\n
  10. Hamburg, Germany<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    (For the entire list and accompanying report, go here<\/a>. \u00a0Registration required. \u00a0I am taking the\u00a0information for this post from Quentin Fottrell,\u00a0This city has the best quality of life in the world (hint: it\u2019s not in the U.S.) \u2013 MarketWatch<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n

    The British Commonwealth did well. \u00a0I happen to be in Australia right now and I have indeed been appreciating its quality of life. \u00a0Melbourne has scored highest in the yearly survey for the last seven years. \u00a0I can see that, from previous visits, though I\u2019ve been told by Australians that its traffic has gotten horrendous, that the large number of immigrants are causing various problems, that\u00a0housing prices are soaring, and that it\u2019s not like it used to be.<\/p>\n

    We\u2019re in Adelaide, and I can see the reasons for its high ranking\u2013it\u2019s beautiful, laid back, interesting, with big city amenities without the big city traffic, crowds, crime, stress, or drama.<\/p>\n

    We were recently in Helsinki, and, yes, I can agree with its high ranking.<\/p>\n

    And Canada, of course, is Canada. \u00a0Our neighbor to the north deserves credit for the pleasantness and livability of its cities.<\/p>\n

    But what about the USA? \u00a0Where do American\u00a0cities rank?<\/p>\n

    Honolulu is the highest at 17. \u00a0OK, we can accept that.<\/p>\n

    But the highest mainland city, at #20, thus making the top 20 list of the highest quality of life in the world is Washington, D.C.!<\/p>\n

    This discredits the whole list. \u00a0People who live in D.C. or its immediate vicinity\u2013as we did until we retired and withdrew to the Oklahoma prairie\u2013might like to live there for various reasons. \u00a0But \u201cquality of life\u201d would not be among them. \u00a0The crime rate, the traffic, the city government, the stress and strain, the sturm und drang\u00a0<\/em>are nighmarish.<\/p>\n

    Also scoring relatively high are Boston at 34, and Chicago (!) \u00a0and Miami, tied at 38.\u00a0 Pittsburgh came it at 41, which makes some sense. \u00a0But Chicago? \u00a0Murder city?<\/a><\/p>\n

    That Washington, D.C., scored so high\u2013higher than any other American city shows that studies like this depend on what factors are measured and (even more importantly) how they are statistically weighted.<\/p>\n

    Here is what\u00a0the Economist study looked at, according to the Marketwatch<\/a> story:<\/p>\n

    Each city was assigned a score based on more than 30 quality of life factors across five categories of stability, health care, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. So the more public parks and less traffic congestion and higher the quality of public schools, for instance, the higher the score. Each factor in each city is rated as acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Some subjectivity here (\u201cundesirable\u201d?) but there are ways to assign a number even to that. \u00a0Crime must in there somewhere, but it doesn\u2019t seem to be a major criterion. \u00a0Clearly Washington, D.C., is going to score extremely high in public parks, the number of world-class museums, and major cultural institutions\u2013all of which take\u00a0up much of the acreage of the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n

    It\u2019s still a mystery how Washington\u2019s crime rate (3 times the national average<\/a>) \u00a0traffic (2nd to the worst)<\/a>\u00a0and bad schools (2nd to the worst<\/a>) didn\u2019t drag the ranking down further. \u00a0Again, it has to be the weighting.<\/p>\n

    And so much of \u201cquality of life\u201d has to do with personal, unquantifiable values, experiences, and priorities. \u00a0Yes, the little town where we live now is not so great on cultural institutions and night life. \u00a0But I feel a\u00a0sense of community\u00a0and social connectedness that I didn\u2019t feel in other places where we\u2019ve lived. \u00a0Also quiet and peace.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    Photo of Melbourne by doctor-a, from Pixabay, Creative Commons<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The UK Economist\u00a0has released its annual\u00a0\u00a0\u201cGlobal Livability Ranking\u201d assessing the \u201cquality of life\u201d of the world\u2019s major cities. \u00a0Terrorist attacks and civil unrest\u2013including violent demonstrations in the U.S.\u2013have brought down the rankings of many cities. \u00a0Overall, the world\u2019s quality of life has declined from a score of 76.1% to 74.8% this year. \u00a0But there is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,42],"tags":[2722,5704,5705,5706],"class_list":["post-29195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-social-science","tag-cities","tag-global-livability-ranking","tag-quality-of-life","tag-social-science-research"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat cities have the best quality of life?\u00a0<\/title>\n<meta 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