A report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has decided upon Canberra as the world’s No.1 city to live while experts calculated Australia to be the best country.
Canberra topped the list of 362 regions across 34 countries after OECD economists translated economic data into a measurement for quality of life.
Ignoring the monotonous sprawling cityscape, thin population and dismal reputation, Canberra topped the OECD’s combined rankings in the fields of Education, Jobs, Income, Safety, Health, Environment, Civic Engagement, Accessibility to Services and Housing, even luring The New York Times to take the bait in a report titled ‘Want an Easy Life? Try Canberra, Australia’.
The OECD found Canberra to be nearly flawless across the majority of categories, awarding the ACT with a perfect score of 10 for Safety Civic Engagement and Income while polling scores of nine plus points in every category except housing (8.5).
Other Australian ‘regions’, WA, Queensland and NSW, also made the OECD’s top 10, joining Western Norway, Stockholm, New Hampshire and Minnesota in the US and British Columbia in Canada.
Australia beat out Norway, Canada, Sweden and the United States for best country while Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Turkey and Mexico battled it out for the worst.
Photo: Lesley-Ann Magno/Getty Images
