Pipped at the post!

And old chart I’ve been meaning to post for a while. From an issue of The Economist.

Canada and Australia again do well in the Economist Intelligence Unit‘s liveability rankings for 2009. Interesting that Helsinki is the only appearance from the Nordic region in the top 10. Why not Stockholm or Copenhagen?

Top 10 cities (well, seven ranks if you take into account ties)
1. Vancouver
2. Vienna
3. Melbourne
4. Toronto
5. Perth
5. Calgary (tie)
6. Helsinki
7. Geneva
7. Sydney (tie)
7. Zurich (tie)

Source: EUI, as cited in The Economist, June 8th, 2009

Reviving my long-forgotten Interesting Australian Factoids category…

• 39% of backpackers had casual sex with someone they had first met that day or night
• Over half of backpackers come from Europe
• ..or more precisely, for some countries:
  • 21% UK
  • 9% Germany
  • 9% USA
  • 6% Japan
• 6% Korea

• Canadian backpackers on average spend the most ($7350), with Kiwis being tight-arses ($2374)

That’s a big sea of useless.

Map by T. Griffith Taylor in 1920s, “Limits of Land Settlement”

Source: NAA’s ‘‘Just Add Water’‘ exhibition

The Economist have a service which aggregates rankings they publish in their newspaper.

Here’s how Australia stacks up

• 2nd (Melbourne), 4th (Perth), 6th (Adelaide) and 7th (Sydney) most livable cities in the world. Also 4 out of the top 10 destinations for business travel (Brisbane comes in at 8th)
• 6th: Most forested areas
• 6th: Highest life expectancy (81 years old)
• 6th: Highest computer ownership (68.9%)
• 6th: Quality of life
• 8th: Democracy
• 8th: “E-readiness”
• 9th: Best business environment
• 17th: Highest male obesity (24th for female)

I always though Australia did much worse in the obesity figures (17th ) so I’m glad to see it doing better than Germany (12th worst), which from my observation always seemed a lot skinnier.

As is typical, those darn Scandinavians generally rank highly in all the good things: democracy, technology, peace and quality of life, however also suffer from high cost of living. I think it’d be worth it though.