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Let’s be real: city life can be incredibly stressful. Between rising rents, work deadlines, endless congestion and transport delays, it’s no wonder so many city dwellers have fled to the country or coast in recent years. If you love the energy of urban life yet crave a little more peace and quiet, we’ve found the cities for you.
A new study by Remitly has unveiled the world’s most relaxing places to live in – and two Australian capitals landed in the top ten. The researchers evaluated 170 major cities on crime rates, quality of healthcare, cost of living, travel times and average annual pollution, to give each an overall ‘stress score’ out of ten.
Aussies are famous for being a laid-back bunch, a reputation often associated with sun-soaked coastal towns. So it might come as a surprise that Canberra ranked as the world's third-most relaxing city to live in, only behind Eindhoven and Utrecht, both in the Netherlands. Travelling ten kilometres in the Australian capital takes a reasonable 15 minutes and 50 seconds (compared with 31 minutes in New York), and the city boasts the second-lowest pollution levels of any top-ten city. While Canberra’s cost of living is lower than the two Dutch cities (69.3), higher crime scores (26.8) and lower healthcare quality (72.6) keep it from claiming gold or silver.
Brisbane was the second Aussie city to make the top ten, landing ninth with a stress score of 2.98. The Sunshine State’s capital boasts the lowest annual pollution rates and the second most affordable cost of living (63.5). However, a ten-kilometre commute takes slightly longer at 19 minutes and 25 seconds, and Brisbane falls behind in quality of healthcare compared to other top-ten cities.
The remainder of the world’s least stressful cities were spread across Europe, and you can see the full top ten below.
The world’s 10 most relaxing cities to live in
1. Eindhoven, Netherlands
2. Utrecht, Netherlands
3. Canberra, Australia
4. Tallinn, Estonia
5. Groningen, Netherlands
= Trondheim, Norway
7. Bergen, Norway
8. Porto, Portugal
9. Brisbane, Australia
10. Rotterdam, Netherlands