The British magazine The Economist distinguished Buenos Aires as the city with the best quality of life in Latin America in its new edition of The Global Liveability Index 2023 ranking, prepared annually. The Global Liveability Index measures and evaluates the quality of life in cities through different categories.
As detailed by the British magazine, the Argentine capital obtained a total of 82.4 points, out of a maximum of 100, well above the Latin American average, which was 68.2. Since 2013, the city of Buenos Aires has topped the list, with the exception of 2021, which was surpassed by Montevideo.
Buenos Aires obtained 100 points in education – the maximum possible score – 85.9 in culture and environment, 85.7 in infrastructure, 83.3 in health and 70 in stability. As you can see, the city stood out in the Education and Culture variant, where it obtained the best score. “It is the city with the most theaters in the world, after London and before New York”, explained The Economist.
Thus, the Argentine capital is on the same level as prestigious cities such as New York, Rome, Edinburgh, even surpassing Abu Dhabi and Shanghai. Globally, the five best cities to live in are Vienna, Copenhagen, Melbourne, Sydney, Vancouver and Zurich.
Furthermore, the report reported that the promising score of Latin American cities increased in this edition, although only Buenos Aires (82.8), Santiago (80.8) and Montevideo (80.4) surpassed a promising score of 80 over a total of 100.
In addition to these, more Latin American cities appear among the top 15 in the ranking, such as the Brazilian cities Rio de Janeiro (6th), São Paulo (7th) and Manaus (12th); Quito, capital of Ecuador (11th); Bogotá, Colombia (13th); and Monterrey (10th), Querétaro (14th) and Mexico City (15th), the three best ranked in Mexico.
Ranking of the best cities to live in Latin America:
1. Buenos Aires, Argentina
2. Santiago, Chile
3. Montevideo, Uruguay
4. San Juan, Puerto Rico
5. San Jose, Costa Rica
6. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
7. São Paulo, Brazil
8. Panama City, Panama
9. Asunción, Paraguay
10. Monterrey, Mexico
Global panorama
Although Argentina’s capital is currently ranked first in Latin America, it ranks 66th out of 173 cities on the list, with Vienna taking the title of Best Quality of Life for the fourth time in five years, due to “its excellent combination of stability, culture and entertainment, and reliable infrastructure.”
Among the categories considered for all cities, only the stability index fell, on average, in 2023. Inflation – a current drama for Argentina’s living standards – is also mentioned as an element that “could lead to further falls in stability indices and thus harm overall livability scores in many parts of the world over the next year.”
The research notes that quality of life increased significantly in 2023, after overcoming the pandemic, and with global improvements in healthcare and education outcomes in many cities across Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
On the other hand, cities in Western Europe fell in the ranking, while the increase in cases of strikes and civil unrest – such as those that occurred in Greece, Germany, Sweden and France – damaged the stability indexes of cities in these countries. Likewise, the Russian cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg are among those that lost the most places in the ranking.
At the bottom of the rankings, Damascus, the capital of Syria, has been the least liveable city in the index for more than a decade. Ukraine’s capital Kiev, excluded from the 2022 index due to war that broke out while data was still being collected, also appears in the bottom ten: its infrastructure score of 23.2 out of 100 is the lowest in the index.
The 10 best cities to live in the world:
1. Vienna, Austria
2. Copenhagen, Denmark
3. Melbourne, Australia
4. Sydney, Australia
5. Vancouver, Canada
6. Zurich, Switzerland
7. Calgary, Canada
8. Geneva, Switzerland
9. Toronto, Canada
10. Osaka, Japan
10. Auckland, Australia (also 10th)
The Global Liveability Index
The Economist Intelligence Unit’s liveability index assesses living conditions in five categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.
Originally designed to help companies calculate hardship allowances for employees moving to a new city, the survey also became a snapshot of the most and least desirable cities to live in.
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