Perth has climbed to #13 in the 2026 Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) Global Liveability Index, one of the 173 cities ranked worldwide. That puts us in the world’s top 8%, ahead of New York, Brisbane, Paris and Toronto.
The index scores cities across 30 indicators grouped into five categories: stability, healthcare, education, infrastructure, and culture and environment. Copenhagen and Vienna led the index this year. Among Australian cities, Melbourne placed 3rd, Sydney 4th, Adelaide 8th and Brisbane 14th. For context, Perth was ranked 15th by EIU in both 2024 and 2025.
Culture and environment is where Perth still leaves points on the table. Our natural environment scores strongly, but cultural and sporting availability, low density of cultural infrastructure and cultural programming drags the category down. We are, in other words, a city that has been handed an extraordinary hand of cards and hasn’t quite finished playing it.
“We are so fortunate here,” says Committee for Perth CEO, Tania Hudson. “Nowhere else gets a gorgeous river, a stunning coastline and this much sunshine as the basic template. But good fortune isn’t a strategy. If we want to be loved, leading and liveable, we have to be intentional about it.”
At Committee for Perth, our ambition is for Perth to be in the top five of the most liveable cities in the world, consistently.
“We’re destined for the Top 5,” Tania says.
“The question isn’t whether we get there. It’s what we do on the way.”
Perth’s population could reach 3.5 million not in 2050 as once forecast, but as early as 2039, eleven years sooner than Committee for Perth predicted back in 2012.
The scope of the challenge was aptly captured by a 16-year-old high school student, as part of a focus group informing our Perth 2050 report, who put it simply: “The challenge will be how Perth keeps its secret sauce and what makes living here so special, at the same time as our population grows.”
Committee for Perth looks forward to continuing to convene critical conversations and drive advocacy around the ingredients of our secret sauce that will foster Perth’s economic, social and environmental success in the decades ahead.
Source: EIU Global Liveability Index 2026. Data provided under licence to Committee for Perth.