According to The Economist Intelligence Unit, Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary are some of the “most liveable” cities in the world. The Global Liveability Ranking and Report August 2014 determines liveability through scores on variety of factors, including safety, healthcare, educational resources, infrastructure and environment.

Based on these factors, Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary made the top 10 list, ranking third, fourth and fifth, respectively. Each factor in a city is rated as acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable. A score of zero is considered intolerable and a score of 100 is ideal. Vancouver scored 97.3, with Toronto not far behind at 97.2. Calgary scored 96.6.

A rating anywhere between 80 and 100 means that there are very few, if any, challenges to living standards in a given city. The report surveyed 140 cities worldwide. Melbourne, Australia, ranked first.

The highest scoring cities were found to be mid-sized cities in wealthy countries with low population densities.