Singapore is world's 52nd most liveable city

Singapore has once again earned its place as one of the world's most livable cities, coming in 52nd on The Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Liveability Ranking.

The city state is only 3.3% behind Hong Kong, which came in 31st on the list of 140 cities.

Globally, Melbourne topped the list for the fourth year running, followed by Vienna, Vancouver, Toronto and Adelaide.

Since 2009, the average liveability score across the world has fallen by 0.7%, mainly a result of a 1.3% drop in the score for stability and safety. The decline is also driven by unrest in Ukraine and the Middle East.

"Liveability trends tend to move slowly, so it is unsurprising to see little or no movement among the top ranked cities. But destabilisation has had a catastrophic impact for some cities with a possible knock-on effect in neighboring countries," Jon Copestake, editor of the survey, said.

On the other end of the spectrum, the bottom five cities were Damascus, Dhaka, Port Moresby, Lagos, and Karachi.

The rankings are calculated based on over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories: Stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.

The results are used to help benchmark perceptions of development levels, and assigning a hardship allowance as part of expatriate relocation packages.

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