Top 10 most livable cities include Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto

Three Canadian cities are ranked in the top 10 of The Economist's annual ranking of the world's "most livable" cities.

Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary are ranked third, fourth and fifth (tied with Adelaide, Australia), respectively, on the distinguished magazine's annual ranking of 140 cities.

The magazine says its ranking "assesses which locations around the world provide the best or the worst living conditions" based on five categories: stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.

Melbourne, Australia, was deemed the most livable city, followed by Vienna. Vancouver and Toronto are a close third and fourth, respectively, while Calgary is tied for fifth with Adelaide.

The top 10 cities are as follows:

• Melbourne.
• Vienna.
• Vancouver.
• Toronto.
• Calgary (tied).
• Adelaide​ (tied).
• Sydney​.
• Helsinki.
• Perth, Australia.
• Auckland.

In general, the ranking shows a broad trend that mid-sized cities in wealthy countries with low population densities score well. Seven of the top 10 cities on the list are in Australia or Canada, for example.

"This can foster a range of recreational activities without leading to high crime levels or overburdened infrastructure," the report says.

Vancouver scored so well in part because of its good score on crime issues.
"Vancouver saw a record low number of murders in 2013, after a decade-long decline that pushed homicide rates down to 1.5 per 100,000 of population in 2012.," the report notes.

Not surprisingly, cities currently experiencing violent uprisings were clustered at the bottom. Kyiv was ranked 124th, Tripoli was in 132nd place, and Damascas was in last place.