City quality of life indices

City quality of life indices are lists of cities that are ranked according to a defined measure of living conditions. In addition to considering the provision of clean water, clean air, adequate food and shelter, many indexes also measure more subjective elements including a city's capacity to generate a sense of community and offer hospitable settings for all, especially young people, to develop social skills, a sense of autonomy and identity.^[1]

Regions with cities commonly ranked in the top 50 include Canada, Western Europe, United States, Australia, and New Zealand.^[2] Three examples of such surveys are Monocle's "Quality of Life Survey", the Economist Intelligence Unit's "Global Liveability Ranking", and "Mercer Quality of Living Survey". Numbeo has the largest statistics and survey data based on cities and countries.^{[3][third-party source needed]} Deutsche Bank's Liveability Survey is another ranking of cities by quality of life.

The reason some cities appear in one ranking but not another is often related to the different criteria used between rankings, but more commonly it is related the difference in weighting given to similar factors.^[4]