LONDON: Melbourne, Australia, is the world’s most livable city but conflict and terrorism have led to a fall in global urban living conditions more generally, according to a respected British study published Tuesday.

For the fifth year running, the Australian city came out on top of the annual Livability Ranking study of 140 cities, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, ahead of Austrian capital Vienna and Vancouver, Canada, which came out top in 2011.

The survey scores cities on five broad categories: stability; health care; culture and environment; education and infrastructure.

It found that mid-sized cities in wealthier countries with a relatively low population density scored highly, with Canada and Australia accounting for seven of the top ten cities.

Although offering a “big city buzz,” the study concluded that global centers such as London, New York, Paris and Tokyo suffered overstretched infrastructure and higher crime rates as a result of their size.

Tokyo was ranked at 15, Paris at 29, London at 53 and New York at 55.

Although the top five cities remain unchanged, more than a third overall saw a change in their score, with the majority of those suffering a fall in standards “reflecting a deterioration in stability in many cities around the world.”