Vienna loses life throne: Copenhagen takes over the tip!

Vienna loses life throne: Copenhagen takes over the tip!

In the current Global Liveability Index 2025, Vienna has lost its top position as the most livable city in the world. After three years at the top, the Austrian capital has now fallen to second place, right behind Copenhagen. These changes were announced on June 18, 2025, whereby the Danish capital convinced with high ratings in the areas of stability, education and infrastructure, while Vienna and Zurich now share second place, as Vol.at.

The evaluation for the Global Liveability Index comprises a total of 173 cities and is based on 30 indicators that are divided into five categories: stability, health care, education, culture & environment and infrastructure. Although Vienna is still highly classified in almost all of these categories, losses in the areas of traffic loads and cultural dynamics resulted in the overall rating. In addition, a thorough terrorist attack on a concert by Taylor Swift was recognized as one of the reasons for the sunken stability, as [Die Zeit] (https://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/zeitfieben/2025-06/global-livability-dex-2025 wien-kopenhagen) reported.

current ranking

The current ranking of the ten most livable cities looks like this:

Vienna remains attractive

Despite the loss of first place, Vienna remains an attractive city, according to Mayor Michael Ludwig. He explained that it was "not a shame" to share the front places with other cities. This award shows that Vienna continues to offer a high quality of life, even if some aspects, such as the availability of rental objects for expats, played a role in devaluation according to the ranking of the management consultant Mercer. Already at the end of 2024 the city had lost its top position at Mercer, which was attributed to the lack of availability of apartments, reports Numbo.

At the bottom of the ranking, cities such as Damascus, Tripolis, Dhaka and Karachi continue to take the last places. The challenges with which many of these cities are confronted are in a strong contrast to the conditions in the top cities mentioned above.