2025’s most liveable cities revealed: The top-ranked U.S. city may surprise you

New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco may well be considered the United States’ most glamorous cities, particularly to non-Americans, but they certainly aren’t the country’s most livable, as confirmed by the annual list for 2025 composed by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

The world’s most livable city changes

For the first time in four years, Vienna, the capital of Austria, is no longer top of the ranking. Danish capital Copenhagen takes over as the “most livable” of the 173 cities ranked by the EIU. Healthcare, education, stability, infrastructure and environment were among the factors taken into consideration for the ranking.

Vienna drops down into a tie for second place with Zurich, the largest city in Switzerland. The top five is completed by Melbourne in Australia, which remains fourth, and another Swiss city, Geneva.

Taylor Swift makes Vienna less livable

One of the reasons for Vienna being knocked off top spot is a drop in its ‘stability’ score, which is thought to have been influenced by a bomb threat at a Taylor Swift concert in the summer of 2024, which led to the gig being canceled.

What is the most livable city in the United States?

As far as the U.S. is concerned, the news isn’t especially great.

There is no American representation in the top 22 places, with Honolulu in Hawaii ranked 23rd, making it the most livable city stateside.

“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,” Barsali Bhattacharyya, deputy industry director at EIU, explained to CNN. “And that’s largely because of the strains on public services infrastructure.”

Vancouver is the highest-ranked North American city in 10th spot, although it dropped three places from seventh, principally due to a lower healthcare score. Calgary, fifth in 2024, slid all the way down to 18th for the same reason.

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