Although Vancouver has been slipping in global evaluations of cities over the past few years, its ranking improved this year on an evaluation of international cities for quality of living.

Years ago, Vancouver had previously been in the top three on Mercer’s Quality of Living survey, but it had slid down in recent years to the fifth position.

Similarly, Vancouver also sank on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2018 report, dropping from third to sixth place. In fact, Calgary had surpassed it, rising from a fifth place tie to third place.

However, in this year’s list of 231 cities, Vancouver rose again to the 3^rd spot—but shared the position in a three-way tie with Munich, Germany, and Auckland, New Zealand.

The top spot went to Vienna, Austria, which has retained the position for 10 consecutive years, followed by Zürich, Switzerland, at number two.  

Vancouver also remained the top North American city on the list, a position it has held on to for the past decade.

Other Canadian cities on the list include Toronto (16), Ottawa (19), Montréal (19, which rose from 21), and Calgary (32)—which, along with Vancouver, comprised the top five North American cities.

All of them surpassed the top American city, San Francisco, which came in at number 34, followed by Boston (36), and Honolulu (37, tied with Lisbon, Portugal).

Mercer evaluates 450 cities for living conditions such as politics and social environment, economy, schools and education, natural environment, health considerations, public services and transportation, housing, and more.