Once again this year, the editors of Monocle magazine have published their annual Quality of Life Survey, ranking major cities around the world. This new version has some twists and drama compared to last year's.
Tokyo came in at first place “due to its defining paradox of heart-stopping size and concurrent feeling of peace and quiet,” the magazine said in a statement. Tokyo was in second place last year.
Meanwhile, Copenhagen, No. 1 for 2014, fell all the way to No. 10, largely because what the magazine calls the “double whammy” of high prices and high taxes.
Other big gains came from Vienna (No. 6 to No. 2), and three cities that weren't even in the top 10 in 2014: Berlin, Sydney and Vancouver.
The Monocle Quality of Life Survey considers many of basics you'd expect, like business climate, crime rate, education and health care. It also adds what the magazine calls “intangibles such as commitment to culture, closing time of bars [and the] price of a good lunch.”
For 2015, 22 additional new metrics were factored in, among them costs (of a one-bedroom apartment or three-bedroom house, cup of coffee, glass of wine, etc.) and access to activities in the great outdoors.
Then there’s the almost mystical quality of what makes a city a city. Monocle’s editor-in-chief, Tyler Brulé, includes among these “freedom, grit, independence, a joy with life."
"We’re frustrated,” he writes, “with city councils that are too quick to say no, places where parents never let their children run free and capitals that seem opposed to the odd late night out.”
Click for a slide show of the top 10.
Rounding out the top 25 are two more Japanese cities (Fukuoka and Kyoto), two in Spain (Madrid and Barcelona), plus Singapore, Paris, Auckland, Lisbon, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Geneva and Oslo.
The only U.S. city in the top 25, at No. 25, is Portland, Ore. Editors cite its quirky charm, easy access to outdoor activities and relative affordability compared to other west coast cities.
