Atlanta declared No. 2 most livable city in U.S. for 2024

In news that’s sure to make Atlanta’s “We Full” movement wince, the city has scored impressively high on an annual ranking of the most livable urban places on the planet, as determined by a British publication with its hand on the pulse of world economies.

The Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister company of London weekly magazine The Economist, has declared Atlanta the No. 2 most livable city in the U.S. for 2024, following only Hawaiian capital Honolulu. (Or as Travel + Leisure magazine put it this week, Atlanta qualified as the “best place to live on the U.S. East Coast.”)

According to EUI’s Global Liveability Index 2024, the ATL performed well on the global stage, earning a No. 29 ranking among the most livable cities in the world. Researchers also slotted Atlanta among the “biggest movers up” in 2024, having climbed four places internationally since last year. (Conversely, Israel’s Tel Aviv dipped the furthest on that chart, falling 20 places in light of conflicts in the region.)   

The Economist relies on an index created by EUI to compile its annual list, ranking living conditions in 173 cities around the globe.

Among its global and American counterparts, Atlanta scored relatively well on more than 30 factors related to culture, the environment, healthcare, infrastructure, education, and what’s broadly defined as “stability,” per the city livability index.

The goal, according to EUI, is to illustrate how comfortable each city is to live in.

Any city with an index between 80 and 100 falls into the category of having “few, if any, challenges to living standards.” Atlanta’s score was 92.3.

In the U.S. top 10, behind Honolulu and Atlanta were Pittsburgh, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Boston, Miami, San Francisco, and Minneapolis, respectively. 

For the third year in a row, the elegant Austrian city of Vienna took the top position on EUI’s global ranking.

In four of the five categories, Vienna scored a perfect 100, though researchers knocked the “culture and environment” metric down to a mere 93.5, noting a dearth of major sporting events.

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