Wellington 23rd-best city to live in, survey says

BY NICK CHURCHOUSE

A global survey has placed Wellington 23rd most liveable city in the world, 13 spots behind Auckland.

The Economist Intelligence Unit, an arm of the publishers of The Economist magazine, published a survey highlighting the standard of living in cities hosting international sporting events.

Vancouver, home for this year's Winter Olympics which start tonight, came in at No1 with "ideal" scores for healthcare, culture and environment, and education.

Wellington scored perfectly for education, but lagged behind Auckland, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide in most other categories.

Ironically, Wellington, as creative capital and with plans to be carbon neutral within two years, scored slightly lower than 10th-placed Auckland in the culture and environment category, a score that mayor Kerry Prendergast has challenged.

The areas where Wellington lagged were largely due to its relative size, she said. Big cities such as Auckland had more healthcare facilities and bigger pockets of cultural diversity because of their sizeable populations and had become a focus for infrastructure investment because they had the most problems.

"I don't think we are talking about the number of cultural institutions and the number of times Wellingtonians go to events compared to Aucklanders. On a per capita basis, we outstrip them," Ms Prendergast said. On Vancouver, she expressed exasperation. "They have 10,000 people living on the streets, and they keep getting the world's most liveable city?"

The EIU survey ranked 140 cities on 30 factors, surveying resident experts and its own analysts. Although the Winter Olympics were in the No1 city, the venue for this year's Fifa World Cup, Johannesburg, was ranked 92nd, let down by poor scores in stability and healthcare, the survey showed.

The 2011 Cricket World Cup was spread between several poorly rated cities in Dhaka, Colombo, New Delhi and Mumbai, all ranked as having "substantial" to "severe" limitations on day-to-day living.

New Zealand, Australian and Canadian cities made up eight of the top 10 liveable cities, with representation from Europe in Vienna, Austria, at second place and Helsinki, Finland, at sixth.

Ms Prendergast said such surveys were not overly influential in enticing events to the city, with venues, probable audience and setup costs more important.

The survey's selling point was the calibre of the capital's peers in the top quartile. "To have two New Zealand cities in the top 23 is fantastic. Wellington right up there with Brisbane, Copenhagen and Paris."

World's Best Cities

1. Vancouver 2. Vienna 3. Melbourne 4. Toronto 5. Calgary 6. Helsinki 7. Sydney 8. Perth 9. Adelaide 10. Auckland ... plus 16. Paris 20. Copenhagen 21. Brisbane 23. Wellington 47. Los Angeles 54. London 56. New York Source: EIU global liveability survey

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