This summer, Atlanta was recognized as the second most livable city in the U.S. by The Economist.
The city was edged out only by Honolulu. Pittsburgh, Seattle, and Washington D.C. rounded out the country’s top five. Atlanta’s ability to rebound from pandemic-related challenges was part of a theme of “optimism amid instability” noted by the publication.
Interestingly, the cities included in the top five most livable places in the U.S. are all midsized cities. “None of the U.S cities that score the highest in the country are very large in terms of population size,” Upasana Dutt, head of The Global Livability Index at EIU, said to Forbes Magazine. “We typically see mid-sized cities in wealthier economies perform better in our survey.”
The index assesses living conditions in 173 cities across five categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. The primary purpose of the survey is to help companies calculate hardship allowances for employees relocating to new and potentially less-desirable cities. As a byproduct, the survey also provides valuable insights into the most and least desirable cities to live in.
Among the five categories covered by the survey, stability was the only one to decline on average in cities around the world in 2023, though inflation might contribute to further declines in stability and overall livability scores across various regions in the coming year.
Ranked the single most livable city in the United States in 2022, Atlanta has been consistently listed as a top ten North American city in the index for more than a decade.
