Dubai has raced ahead to grab the third spot in a new global liveability survey that ranks cities that have recorded the most improvement in tackling lifestyle challenges over the past five years.

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Ranking was divided into two categories, with the emirate being beaten to the top spot by Bogota, Columbia, followed by Harare, Zimbabwe nabbing the second position in the cities that showed the most improvement over the five-year period.

Dubai, which ranked at number 77 out of the 140 cities, saw a 2.9 per cent jump on the scale in the period between 2009-2013, with an overall rating of 74.2 out of 100.

Kuwait City was the only other GCC candidate, which ranked at 81 position, marking a 2.5 per cent jump over the same period. Its overall rating stood at 72.1.

Meanwhile, the Arab Spring and the current political turmoil in the Mideast has seen several cities in the region recording the biggest decline on the liveability scale over five years, with Damascus, Syria coming in last at number 140. The city recorded a negative movement of 20.4 per cent, with an overall rating of 38.3 out of 100.

Rounding up the top three from the bottom of the 140-city list were Tripoli, Libya with -19.9 per cent liveability decline, followed by Cairo, Egypt with -5.9 per cent.

Meanwhile, Muscat, Oman and Amman, Jordan have also made the cut in the ‘10 of the worst’ list, with the former at number 10 with a negative 3.7 per cent drop in living conditions, and the latter at number six, recording a -4.1 per cent drop.

Best living conditions
 
Across the second category in the liveability survey, Melbourne has pulled off a hat trick as the current winner of being the most liveable city for the third year running, followed by Vienna and Vancouver.
 
However, this apparent stability hides longer-term trends that become apparent when taking a five-year view.
 
Only 28 cities of the 140 surveyed have registered changes in the last 12 months, but 86 cities have experienced a change in liveability over the past five years.
 
Of these, just 30 have seen an improvement in scores, while 56 have seen liveability levels declining.
 
The past five years have seen global liveability slip by 0.6 per cent, led by a 1.3 per cent fall in the score for stability and safety.
 
Jon Copestake, editor of the survey, said in a statement: “Liveability often seems static on a year-to-year basis. But looking at movement over a longer period we can see some significant trends emerging.
 
“While the threat of terror had a defining influence on liveability in the last decade, we can clearly see that civil unrest has already had a significant impact on liveability in this decade, ” said Copestake.
 
A variety of events, from the Arab Spring to austerity protests and unrest in China, have all contributed to making the world a less liveable place over the past five years.
 
The past five years have seen civil unrest becoming a globally destabilising factor, with a number of different reasons for discontent.
 
But austerity and feelings of disenfranchisement have led to rioting and protests in Europe as well, notably in Greece, but also in Britain and most recently in Spain.
 
In China, which has seen improving liveability levels over the past five years due to investment in infrastructure and higher living standards, there has been heightened unrest triggered by a range of social problems, most notably anti-Japanese rioting in August and September last year.
 
With the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Ranking, every city was assigned a rating of relative comfort for over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories: stability; healthcare; culture and environment; education; and infrastructure.
 
Each factor in a city was rated as acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable.