Melbourne named world's most liveable city for fifth year running

Melbourne has topped the liveability rankings for a fifth consecutive year, while Adelaide, Sydney and Perth hold bragging rights in the top 10.

The Victorian capital beat the Austrian city of Vienna by a tiny margin of 0.1 point, to hold onto its placing in The Economist's annual list of most liveable cities.

Australia and Canada dominated the top 10 - Adelaide came equal fifth with Calgary, one of three Canadian cities to make the top five, along with Toronto and Vancouver.

Sydney placed seventh, and Perth came in at eighth, giving Australia an impressive four cities in the top 10.

Brisbane was ranked 18th in the world.

Survey editor Jon Copestake said the hostage siege in Sydney last year put Australia on a high terror alert, which may affect future scores for Australian cities.

The report said the best scoring cities tend to be mid-sized cities in wealthier countries, with a relatively low population density.

Successful cities like New York, London, Paris and Tokyo tended to fall lower on the rankings due to overstretched infrastructure and higher crime rates.

The rankings of 140 cities from around the world are calculated on "lifestyle challenges", such as stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. Issues such as housing affordability are not taken into consideration.

The five most liveable cities:

1. Melbourne, Australia - 97.5/100

2. Vienna, Austria - 97.4/100

3. Vancouver, Canada - 97.3/100

4. Toronto, Canada - 97.2/100

5. Adelaide, Australia - 96.6/100

5. Calgary, Canada - 96.6/100

The five least liveable cities:

136. Tripoli, Libya - 40/100

137. Lagos, Nigeria - 39.7/100

138. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea - 38.9/100

139. Dhaka, Bangladesh - 38.7/100

140. Damascus, Syria - 29.3/100