Brussels is often praised for being a pleasant place to live and has become an unexpected home to thousands of expats who came for a short work placement and decided to stay. But the Belgian capital has fallen significantly in the ranking of the world's most liveable cities, compiled annually by The Economist.
Brussels has dropped five places, from 30 to 35. This is one of the biggest declines in the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) Liveability Index for 2024. Austria's capital Vienna, meanwhile, tops the list for the third year in a row.
The assessment scores 173 global cities on 30 indicators divided into five categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure to show how comfortable these cities are to live in.
Slipping five places, Brussels registered the seventh-biggest fall in the ranking. But the city remains a comfortable place to live, with an overall score of 91.4 out of 100.
Farmers took their tractors to the streets of Brussels on several occasions this year. Credit: Belga / James Arthur Gekiere
The drop in Brussels is explained by instability in the capital – partly due to disruptive demonstrations, such as the farmers' protests that saw some violent clashes with police and the European Quarter being closed off on several occasions as hundreds of tractors rolled into the neighbourhood.
Stability has seen the biggest regression in the index's five categories. The growing frequency of protests has made the West European cities those that fell most on the index. Five German cities were among the most substantial declines (Munich, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Berlin and Dusseldorf).
The Israeli city of Tel Aviv recorded the biggest drop in the index (-20) due to the war with Hamas. The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine continues to keep Kyiv in the bottom ten of the ranking.
The high-scorers
Hongkong (+11), Singapore (+8), Budapest (+7) and Ho Chin Minh City (+7) were among the cities that rose the most in the recent ranking.
Vienna remains on top of the ranking for the third year running. It was again awarded perfect scores of 100 in four of the five categories. Only in the culture and environment category did it perform slightly less strongly, with 93.5 due to a lack of major sporting events.
After Vienna, the Danish capital Copenhagen, Zurich in Switzerland, the Australian city of Melbourne and Canada’s Calgary complete the top five.
Other cities in Switzerland, Australia and Canada also appear in the top ten, alongside Osaka in Japan and Auckland, New Zealand.
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The least liveable city remains Syria's capital Damascus, with Tripoli one place above it. Both Syria and Libya have been suffering years-long civil wars, devastating economies and destroying livelihoods.
Western Europe remains the best-performing region for liveability, coming top in four categories. "The 30 Western European cities in this year’s ranking reported an impressive average score of 92 out of 100," The Economist noted. However, the region’s overall score has slipped since last year.
