Best Cities To Live In 2014: Detroit Tops London In Latest Economist Study

london property — Chinese investors are buying up property in London and, in some cases moving themselves and their families there. Reuters

The huge influx of cash-rich foreigners into London's home market has boosted economic inequality to such levels that it’s made the city a less desirable place to live than Detroit. That's the shocking finding in the latest data collected and published by the Economist Intelligenc Unit.

According to a Financial Times analysis of the report, the only European cities less attractive to live in are Lisbon and Athens.

As the Financial Times parsed the data, it commented that:

London has become a haven for money from around the world, with at least £122bn of U.K. property now held by offshore companies. As a result, house prices are growing rapidly, increasing by nearly 20 percent in the past year according to official data published on Tuesday.
Despite this huge demand from international buyers, London is a less attractive place to live than Detroit or Reykjavik, the EIU researchers found.

Melbourne, Australia, topped the list, followed by Vienna, Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary, reflecting a strong showing for Canadian locales.

Here is the list of the Economist’s best cities based on what it calls The Livability Index;

According to the Economist:

The index crunches 30 factors related to things like safety, health care, educational resources, infrastructure and environment in 140 cities. Over the past five years, urban life has deteriorated somewhat: livability has declined in 51 places and improved in 31 places.