After three years at the top of the annual Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) list, the Austrian capital has been overtaken by Copenhagen as the most sustainable city on the planet. The Danish capital took the top spot in the ranking of the world’s most sustainable cities for 2025, which was published on Tuesday. The Economist magazine’s EIU ranked 173 cities around the world based on a number of factors, including healthcare, education, stability, infrastructure and the environment.
Copenhagen triumphed after receiving “perfect” scores for stability, education and infrastructure, while Vienna tied for second place with Zurich. Melbourne retained fourth place, while Geneva took fifth place on the list. Sydney moved up the rankings, moving from seventh to sixth, while Osaka and Auckland tied for seventh place.
In ninth place, Adelaide was the third Australian city to make the top ten, while Vancouver came in tenth place. Vienna dropped to second place in the ranking of the world’s most sustainable cities for 2025, after lower scores in the stability category this year.
As the Economist points out, Athens is the only one out of 30 cities in Western Europe and 25 in Northern Europe. It is the only city in Europe and 25 cities in the Americas that did not achieve the highest level of living conditions, securing a score above 80.
So why did Vienna fail to win first place this year?
Although the Austrian city performed well in most categories, its score in the stability category dropped significantly, while Copenhagen scored highly in all sections.
The “sharp drop” in Vienna’s score in the stability category was attributed to recent incidents, such as the bomb threat at a Taylor Swift concert last summer, which led to the cancellation of the event. “Global sustainability has remained stable over the past year and, as in 2024, stability scores have declined globally,” Barsali Bhattacharyya, deputy director of the EIU, said in a statement. “The pressure for stability led Vienna to lose its position as the most sustainable city after three years.”
The biggest changes
However, Vienna was not the only city to receive lower scores in a category in which it had previously performed well. Calgary, which ranked fifth in 2024, dropped out of the top 10 this year, taking 18th place after scoring lower in health care, along with three other Canadian cities, due to “stress” on the country’s health care system.
As a result, Toronto also ranked lower this year, dropping from 12th to 16th. “This just reflects the long waiting lists for medical exams,” Bhattacharyya tells CNN Travel. “There’s a shortage of staff in medical facilities and hospitals.” Bhattacharyya points out that other regions of the world are facing pressures on health care systems and housing infrastructure, but Canada “stood out” because of the lingering impact of these factors.
“To put it in context, they are still among the most livable cities in the world,” he adds. Honolulu was the highest ranked US city on the list, taking 23rd place. “We’ve noticed a trend where smaller or mid-sized US cities are actually performing much better than really big cities like New York or Los Angeles,” explains Bhattacharyya. “And this is largely due to the pressures on public service infrastructure.”
Meanwhile, the UK cities of London, Manchester and Edinburgh also fell in the rankings, after receiving lower scores in the stability category.
In this year’s list, London fell from 45th to 54th, Manchester from 43rd to 52nd and Edinburgh from 59th to 64th.
Reduction of stability
Melbourne was one of three Australian cities ranked in the top 10 in the ranking of the world’s most liveable cities. “As of 2024, stability scores have declined for Western Europe, the Middle East and North Africa,” Bhattacharyya adds. “In this edition, they have also declined for Asia, amid intensifying threats of military conflict for cities in India and Taiwan.”
While some destinations fell in the rankings, others made significant gains, with the Persian Gulf city of Al Khobar in Saudi Arabia rising 13 places, from 148th to 135th.
The kingdom has made significant investments to improve access to healthcare and education under Vision 2030, a comprehensive plan to diversify its economy and reduce its dependence on oil.
Indonesia’s Jakarta also moved up the list, climbing 10 places from 142nd to 132nd, thanks to improvements in its stability.
Predictably, the positions at the bottom of the list have not changed much over the past year, with Damascus, Syria remaining the least liveable city in the world six months after the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad. Tripoli in Libya ranked just above it. Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, ranked third from the bottom, while Pakistan’s Karachi and Algeria’s Algeria were ranked as the fourth and fifth least liveable cities. While in 2024 global sustainability increased “slightly”, this is certainly not the case this year. “This is due to the decrease in stability,” explains Bhattacharyya. “Because we have seen improvements in categories like healthcare and education, especially in Middle Eastern cities. However, this has been substantially offset by the decline in stability.”
Global Sustainability Index for 2025: top 10 cities
1. Copenhagen, Denmark
2. Vienna, Austria
2. Zurich, Switzerland
4. Melbourne, Australia
5. Geneva, Switzerland
6. Sydney, Australia
7. Osaka, Japan
7. Auckland, New Zealand
9. Adelaide, Australia
10. Vancouver, Canada
