lurkette

I hate to break it to all you Sydney-ites, and everyone else, but apparently the verdict is in and MELBOURNE beat you all out:

<a href="http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/10/04/1033538761412.html">http://www.theage.com.au/articles/20...538761412.html</a>

The text:

Melbourne has been declared the near-perfect town after being rated the best city in the world to call home.

In a survey of 130 cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit rated Melbourne and Vancouver in Canada as the best cities in the world in which to live, with Perth ranked third and Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide tied in eighth place.

Papua New Guinea's capital Port Moresby was rated the worst.

The London-based EIU assessed the level of hardship for expatriates in the 130 cities, focussing on 12 factors including housing, education, recreational activities and climate.

Not surprisingly, Melbourne's weather prevented it earning a perfect score of zero, with the Victorian capital and Vancouver scoring one point, Perth two and Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane all on four.

Sydneysiders won't agree, but Melbourne's weather, based on humidity rather than rain and temperature, was adjudged better.

And while Sydney received a near-perfect score in all categories, its high level of violent crime, on a par with New York and London, cost it points.

"Really we found very little wrong with Melbourne, it's just about the perfect city," said Bill Ridgers, editor of the EIU's Cost of Living survey.

"It got a perfect score in every single category we looked at, apart from slight faults in its humidity and the availability of recreational activities, but that's really splitting hairs."

Cities were rated one to five in the 12 categories, with one at 0 per cent meaning there was no hardship and five, at 100 per cent, indicating extreme hardship.

Sydney earned a two for violent crime, the same as New York and London, while Port Moresby scored five.

Melbourne received 1.1 for recreational activities, falling down on the availability of concerts and theatre, while Sydney earned one, but Perth received the lowest score of the five Australian cities surveyed.

The survey was split into three categories with the health and safety section rating the threat of violent crime, the threat posed by terrorism or armed conflict and a health and disease assessment.

Culture and environment looked at the availability of nightclubs, restaurants, sporting events, sporting facilities, theatres, cinemas and concerts, as well as studying climate, levels of corruption and the availability of consumer goods and services.

The infrastructure section ranked transport, housing, education and utilities.

Ridgers said although the survey was based on expats' experiences, the factors were broad enough to apply to locals as well.

London was joint 44th on 13 points along with Hong Kong, Lisbon, Madrid and San Francisco, while New York was 52nd on 16, equal with Dublin.

Canada performed strongly with Toronto equal fourth with Vienna, Geneva and Zurich, while Montreal joined Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Copenhagen, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Oslo in eighth and Calgary was ranked 16th.

New Zealand cities Auckland and Wellington were both ranked 24th.

Let the internecine squabbling begin!

__________________
"If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."

- Anatole France