Europe's cities have noticeably lost their attractiveness due to the corona pandemic.
In the annual ranking of the most livable cities by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), which was published on Tuesday, Vienna, Hamburg and other European metropolises performed significantly worse than in previous years.
On the other hand, cities in New Zealand, Japan and Australia made up positions.
The New Zealand port city of Auckland secured the title of “most liveable city in the world” this year.
The EIU explained that the success in containing the Covid-19 pandemic made a significant contribution.
Japan's Osaka followed in second place, while Adelaide in Australia took third place.
New Zealand's capital Wellington came in fourth.
Vienna, the leader in the EIU ranking from 2018 to 2020, fell back to twelfth place.
Hamburg even fell by 13 places to 47th place. "Eight of the ten largest relegated cities in the ranking are European cities," explained the editors.
German and French cities are falling behind in particular
In detail, the EIU cites the “burden on hospital systems” and the associated “deteriorated assessment of health care” as the reason for the poor performance, particularly for German and French cities.
The pandemic also had a particularly strong impact on culture and the general quality of life in Europe.
The capital of the US Pacific island of Hawaii recorded the greatest improvement in the ranking: Honolulu got the spread of the corona virus under control particularly quickly and therefore rose 46 places to 14th in the ranking. According to the study, however, the Syrian capital Damascus remains the city where life is the most difficult due to the civil war.