Vancouver No. 1, Toronto No. 5 on most livable cities list

Vancouver has been ranked the best place to live in the world for the fifth year in a row in a survey by the Economist magazine,while Torontotook fifth place out of 132 cities.

The two Canadian cities rank among the top five because they have low crime rates, little threat from instability or terrorism, and a highly developed transport and communications infrastructure, says the survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

Vancouverscored a livability index of 1.3 per cent, with zero indicating exceptional quality of living and 100 indicating life there isintolerable or severely restricted.

Toronto's livability index was 3.0.

Australia also fared well in the survey, securing four spots among the top 10 cities.

Algiers came in atthe bottom of the ranking. Nine cities, including Algiers, present the worst-case scenario in which most aspects of living quality are severely restricted, according to the survey.

The EIU's livability ranking is part of the magazine's Worldwide Cost of Living Survey.

The survey considered40 individual factors in categories such asstability, health care, culture, environment, education and infrastructure.