These Are The Best - And Worst - Places To Live In 2022

Looking to move but don’t know where to make your new home? Luckily for you, the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Index should have the answers you need. This details the best places to live in 2022, as well as the worst, so you know where to go and where to avoid.

If you decide to pack up your life and move to any of these cities, you’ll have to say goodbye to the US, as no American locations rank within the top 10. Don’t let that put you off, though. These cities are considered the best places to live for a reason, so leaving the country could do you a lot of good.

Vienna is apparently the best place to live in 2022 with an almost perfect score

It turns out that if you want to live a happy life, Vienna, Austria might be the place you need to visit. Although it was outside of the top ten during the global health crisis, it’s ranked first three years out of the last five. It seems that the city ticked all the necessary boxes, scoring 100 on four of the five different sectors. Education, infrastructure, stability, and healthcare all apparently received perfect scores, with culture and environment being the only one to drop below 100. However, it still received a respectable score of 96.3, bringing the city’s overall total to 99.1. We already knew that  Austria has a lot going for it, and it seems Vienna really goes above and beyond.

Most of the best places to live in 2022 are located in Europe

Vienna isn’t the only European city to appear in the Global Liveability Index list for 2022. Just below the Austrian hotspot is Copenhagen, Denmark, with an overall score of 98. The only difference between these two cities is that the latter received a lower score of 95.4 for culture and environment. Zurich, Switzerland ranked third with 96.3, receiving the same score for culture and environment as Vienna. However, education was lower at 91.7, with the other categories scoring around the mid-90s. Another Swiss city - Genena - appears in the top ten in sixth place with 95.9, while the other European cities place just below. These are Frankfurt, Germany on 95.7 and Amsterdam, The Netherlands on 95.3.

Canada is the only country to have three of the best places to live in 2022

While Europe might be home to some of the best places to live in 2022, you might not be interested in traveling so far abroad. If so, you’ll be glad to know that there’s somewhere a bit closer to home that also features frequently in the top ten - Canada. Calgary, Vancouver, and Toronto are all considered some of the best places to live in 2022, with each of them scoring 100 in two categories. All three of them excelled in education, with Calgary also having a solid showing in infrastructure, Vancouver in culture and environment, and Toronto in healthcare. Depending on what matters most to you will likely influence where you think is the best of these Canadian cities to live.

Damascus is considered the worst place to live in 2022 out of 172 cities

So, you know which are the best places to live in 2022. What about the worst? It seems that Damascus, Syria has the unfortunate honor of placing last out of the 172 cities included in the Global Liveability Index. Overall, it received 30.7, less than a third of the 95.1 that Osaka, Japan, and Melbourne, Australia scored in their tenth place tie. The city didn’t score well in any category, with safety seeming to be one of the biggest issues here. Given the years of war that have plagued Syrian cities like Damascus, it’s maybe no wonder that the analysts aren’t advising anyone to make a new life for themselves here.

Cities in Nigeria, Libya, and Alberia are also some of the worst places to live in 2022

It’s not just Damascus that the Global Liveability Index recommends you avoid. Other cities that appear at the bottom include Lagos in Nigeria, Tripoli in Libya, Algiers in Algeria, and Karachi in Pakistan. Like with Damascus, safety concerns are paramount in some of these places. For instance, Tripoli reportedly faced a very recent assault as forces attempted to take over the city. Although they were unsuccessful, it’s things like this that help explain the score of 34.2 the area received. Out of the locations considered to be the ten worst places to live in 2022, Tehran, Iran fared the best. However, with a score of 44, it’s still far below what you can get from moving to various parts of Europe and Canada.

No city is perfect, as evidenced by Vienna not even placing within the top ten the last two years before shooting into first place. So, it’s possible your city could rise up the rankings over the next year. Still, if you are tempted to move somewhere else before then, you know where to consider.