Vancouver named only North American city in world's top 10 most livable places
The Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Vancouver ninth globally, up one spot from 2025, citing perfect scores in education and health care.
The day's top stories, food & events — every morning at 7. Unsubscribe anytime.
Vancouver has ranked ninth on the Economist Intelligence Unit's latest Global Livability Index, making it the only North American city and the only Canadian destination in the top 10.
The city climbed one position from its 2025 ranking. According to the EIU's analysis, Vancouver scored highly across all measured categories: 95 for stability, 96 for health care, 97 for culture and environment, 100 for education, and 93 for infrastructure. Its overall index score was 96, placing it just behind Adelaide, Australia, and just ahead of Tokyo, Japan.
The EIU notes that all top 10 cities scored perfectly in education, with most also earning 100 for health care provision. The rankings evaluate 173 cities worldwide across five core factors: stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.
Vancouver's infrastructure score of 93 — the weakest of its five categories — relates to the availability of good housing. The EIU report notes that since last year, housing supply has improved in Vancouver.
Across all 173 cities evaluated, the average livability score remained at 76.1, unchanged from 2025. The EIU highlighted concerning trends: average stability scores fell 0.5 points across all cities, and culture-and-environment scores declined marginally, particularly in Europe. These declines were offset by a 0.7-point increase in average health care scores and marginal gains in education and infrastructure.
