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While we may have crowned Melbourne number one in Time Out's 2026 ranking of the world's best cities, there's another global list that often causes quite a stir when it drops – and this year is no different.
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has just unveiled its 2026 Global Liveability Index, and Melbourne has climbed one spot from fourth in 2025 to secure third place on the list. Where Time Out's ranking is built entirely on responses from thousands of locals around the world, the EIU’s Global Liveability Index dives deep into the hard data. It scores 173 cities across 30 indicators grouped into five categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure, with the aim of showing how comfortable each place is to live in.
With this in mind, nabbing the bronze medal is still something for us Melburnians to be proud about. Our city shared an overall total of 97 out of 100 with Vienna, which is far above the global average liveability score of 76.1.
Melbourne's infrastructure score of 96 trailed Vienna by four points, but we trumped the Austrian capital in the culture and environment category. That win won't surprise anyone familiar with the eclectic arts scene that is core to the city's DNA. Head out on any night of the week, and you’re bound to stumble upon basement comedy gigs, indie theatre, late-night gallery pop-ups and everything in between.
And Melbourne wasn't the only Aussie city to make the cut. Sydney and Adelaide landed in fourth and eighth spots respectively, making Australia the only country in the world with three locations in the top ten.
Sydney even went toe-to-toe with Melbourne, locking in identical scores across every category except culture and environment, where it fell short by two points (94).
So, what city actually took out the global title for 2026? Copenhagen has been named the most liveable city on the planet for the second year running, with Vienna in second place. The Danish capital scored an overall 98 out of 100, earning perfect marks in three of the index's five categories: stability, education and infrastructure.
You can check out the full Global Liveability Index report here.
The 10 most liveable cities in the world for 2026:
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Vienna, Austria
- Melbourne, Australia
- Sydney, Australia
- Zurich, Switzerland
- Geneva, Switzerland
- Osaka, Japan
- Adelaide, Australia
- Vancouver, Canada
- Tokyo, Japan
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