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A slick advert by the Melbourne tourist board shows pictures of its enviable schools, beaches, transport system and nightlife, all of which have helped it earn the number one spot as the world's most liveable city.

The 140 cities in the survey are judged on five broad categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. The top scorers tend to be mid-sized cities in wealthy countries with a low population density. Some seven of the top ten – including Vancouver, Toronto and Sydney – are in Australia or Canada. Vienna, Helsinki and Auckland also made the top ten.

Of the cities surveyed – and some like Kabul and Baghdad were not included for safety reasons – Dhaka in Bangladesh was rated the least liveable. Lagos, Harare, Algiers and Karachi all scored poorly as well.

The city that has dropped fastest down the list in the last year is Damascus, due to the ongoing conflict in Syria, while infrastructure improvements in China mean that cities like Shanghai and Suzhou have scored better than they did last year.