Buenos Aires is the most liveable city in Latin America, according to a survey by the British publication The Economist that also places Vienna as the best city in the world to live in as an expat. 

While Argentina’s capital is currently ranked 66 out of 173 cities, Vienna claimed the top spot for the fourth time in five years due to “its excellent mix of stability, culture and entertainment, and reliable infrastructure.”

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s latest liveability index rated living conditions across five categories: stability, health care, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. Originally designed to help companies calculate hardship allowances for staff who were moving to a new city, the survey has also become a snapshot of the most, and least, desirable cities to live in.

Among the categories under consideration for all cities, only the stability score dropped on average in 2023. Inflation —a current drama for Argentina’s living standards— is also mentioned as an element that “could lead to further falls in stability scores, and thus damage overall livability scores, in many parts of the world over the next year.”

According to the summary, Asia-Pacific cities have made some of the biggest gains, accounting for eight of top ten movers up the rankings as economies recover from the pandemic. Meanwhile, European cities have slipped this year, as increased workers’ strikes and civil unrest have hurt their stability ratings.

At the bottom of the ranking, Damascus has been the least liveable city in the index for more than a decade. Ukraine capital Kyiv, excluded from the 2022 index due to the Russian invasion that took place while data was still being collected, also features in the bottom ten: its infrastructure score of 23.2 out of 100 is the lowest in the index, due to the bombings it has suffered.

*With information by Télam