Bengaluru: Copenhagen has retained its crown as the world’s most liveable city for the second year running, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Index 2026, released this week. But beyond the Danish capital’s steady grip on first place, the rankings reveal a churn. Gulf cities have dropped places over the Iran war, Chinese cities are climbing on the back of healthcare investment, and New York is the only North American city on the biggest movers list.
The index, compiled annually by the EIU—the research and analysis arm of The Economist Group—scores 173 cities on 30 indicators. These are grouped under five categories: Stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. Scores are drawn from in-house analyst judgement and external data sources such as the World Bank and Transparency International. They are then weighted into a category score and an overall rating out of 100. This year’s survey was conducted in May 2026.
Vienna and Melbourne held on to second and third place respectively. Zurich and Geneva slipped a notch each—both hit by declining culture and environment scores. Sydney, Adelaide and Tokyo moved up. Auckland was the top ten’s biggest casualty, dropping five places out of the leading pack entirely. Vancouver remains the sole North American city in the top bracket and it moved up a spot to number 9 this year.
Winners and losers
The steepest declines came from the Middle East. The Iran war, which began in February 2026 with Israeli and US strikes and escalated with Iranian attacks on neighbours and a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, dragged the region’s average score. “On average, the 18 cities in the MENA region have fallen by more than three places in the rankings,” reads the report.
Muscat and Kuwait City fell 14 and 12 places respectively—the biggest downward movers globally—while Tehran dropped into the bottom ten for the first time. Chinese cities, meanwhile, dominated the upward movers list, led by Fuzhou, as years of public healthcare spending paid off, though political restrictions continue to cap their culture and environment scores.
“The average score for the 58 Asian cities in the index is now 73.9, just ahead of eastern Europe,” the report notes.
Neither this year’s report nor last year’s names a single Indian city in the top or bottom ten, or among the biggest movers. The 2025 edition had specifically flagged Indian cities’ stability scores dropping after the Pahalgam attack.
“For the Indian cities in the rankings, the downgrade follows one of the worst terrorist attacks targeting civilians in the country, which led to military confrontation with its neighbour, Pakistan,” read the 2025 report. This year’s report has no mention of India.
Two cities from India’s neighbourhood are present, though the picture is one of stasis rather than change. Karachi has stayed pinned at 170th place two years running, its index score inching up marginally from 42.7 to 43. Dhaka has shown the same pattern, holding at 171st with a score barely moved from 41.7 to 42. Both cities remain fixtures in the bottom ten.
Damascus remains the world’s least liveable city for a second consecutive year, while Caracas—helped by a change of government in January 2026—became the only city to climb out of the bottom ten this time round.