The Economist’s 2025 Global Liveability Index ranks Adelaide as ninth best place to live

Adelaide has climbed back into the top 10 of most liveable cities, but two other Australian locations have pipped the City of Churches.

Adelaide is officially one of the top ten most liveable cities in the world, according to this year’s The Economist’s Global Liveability Index.

In the organisation’s ranking, Adelaide rose through the ranks to secure the ninth spot out of 173 cities around the world, after scoring 95.9.

For the index, the cities received a rating out of 100 based on more than 30 qualitative and quantitative factors within categories of healthcare, culture and environment, stability, infrastructure and education.

Adelaide scored 100 for healthcare and education, 96.4 for infrastructure, 95 for stability and 91.4 for culture and environment.

Last year, Adelaide ranked 11th place.

Adelaide has been named as the ninth most liveable city in the world, joining Melbourne and Sydney as the three Australian cities that were listed in the top ten. Picture: Ben Clark

Premier Peter Malinauskas said the ranking officially dubbed Adelaide as one of the best places to live.

“Every South Australian knows our capital city is a great place to live,” Mr Malinauskas said in a Wednesday morning Instagram post.

“And now it’s official”.

Across the country, Melbourne was once again crowned the fourth most liveable city in the world – retaining its spot from last year – after scoring 97 out of 100.

Ranking a spot higher than last year, Sydney secured the sixth place with an Index score of 96.6 out of 100.

Denmark’s capital city Copenhagen claimed the title of the world’s most liveable city, beating Austria’s capital city Vienna after a three-year stint in the top spot.

Judges believed Vienna’s stability score fell considerably this year, which cost the city the top spot.

Copenhagen received “perfect scores” for stability, education and infrastructure and rated highly across all the other categories to achieve an overall Index score of 98 out of 100.

Originally published as The Economist’s 2025 Global Liveability Index ranks Adelaide as ninth best place to live