More and more people live in cities and urban areas today. Several forecasts, including from the UN, anticipate it will continue to increase in the coming decades. So, it is important to make sure these areas are liveable. There is a lot to think about here, but luckily we can take inspiration from the latest EIU Global Liveability Index. It shows what countries around the world do really well, areas to improve, and more. So, let’s dive in, then you can rely on us if you want to design residential architecture in London and more.

The Index

EIU’s index ranks over 170 cities around the world to find out which are the most and least liveable. Interestingly, it looks at over thirty different factors in five key categories (stability, healthcare, culture & environment, education, and infrastructure). This provides a deeper rating of each city, seeing which offer the best and worst living conditions.

There are some really interesting findings in the 2026 index. Western Europe is the strongest region overall. However, Asia is improving rapidly, particularly because of investments in healthcare, and is closing the gap. Liveability in the Gulf Region has declined because of the Iran war. A big concern is stability continues to decline on average.

Best cities

Before we look at some of the cities in the top ten, let’s have a look closer at home. We’re passionate about residential architecture in London, working to create the best homes and housing. While the city ranks highly on various other indexes, it only gets into the mid 50s here. Luckily, this still places it in the highest tier of liveability. Even better, it has stabilised.

Overall, with a score of 98 out of 100, the most liveable city in the world according to EUI is Copenhagen. It keeps the title for the second year in a row. Incredibly, it got perfect scores for stability, infrastructure, and education. It only lost a few points for healthcare (96) and culture & environment (95).

Vienna, Melbourne, and Sydney were marginally behind the Danish capital, scoring 97. All three had perfect scores for healthcare and education. They also had the same scores for stability (95). Vienna was perfect for infrastructure too.

Discuss any aspect of residential architecture in London with us

Liveability is something you should definitely think about, especially when you’re designing homes. We’d love to help, sharing our expertise and design skills. We can work with you to consider all of the different elements that make properties liveable. This includes access, quality living space, comfort, health & wellbeing, and sustainability.

So, speak to us today about residential architecture in London. We provide the finest services and unbeatable designs.