My city is now the world’s most liveable – apart from the 171 days of rain a year

Walking along cobblestone streets in the Danish capital, you can almost hear an orchestra playing Wonderful Copenhagen – a ditty from the 1950s classic film Hans Christian Andersen about Denmark’s master of fairytales.

Out of 173 cities, Copenhagen recently unseated Vienna for top spot in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2025 Global Liveability Index.

Such rankings always add fuel to the fire in the Melbourne-Sydney rivalry. This year, the Victorian capital landed fourth spot ahead of the harbour city in sixth. Meanwhile, Adelaide’s ninth place generated collective eye rolls in Perth.

Short-term smugness and bragging rights aside, having called five major Australian cities, plus Bangkok and Copenhagen home, I can attest that global league tables should be taken with a grain of salt. No city stands on a pedestal of perfection. All cities are a work in progress with charms, quirks and flaws. Data crunchers can never truly capture lived experience.

So, what’s it like living in the world’s most liveable city?

The song doesn’t lie – Copenhagen is truly wonderful. I love my life here. I pinch myself every day that I randomly met my very own Danish Prince Charming and parachuted into his cosy Scandinavian life, where his nearest and dearest not only welcomed me with open hearts but also showered me with handmade knitwear.

Copenhagen is a chic, romantic city, brimming with hygge, castles, green spaces, bike paths, efficient public transport, free health care and state-funded education. It is extremely family-friendly, prioritising work-life balance, gender equality, and featuring heavily subsidised childcare and generous parental leave. It is so safe that parents frequently leave sleeping babies unattended in prams outside cafes.

But even social welfare utopias have challenges, niggles and frustrations. All those aforementioned nice things funded by the state are a result of residents paying a lot of tax.

Be warned, those charming photos of crowds sitting in the sun drinking “probably the best beer in the world” (Carlsberg) outside Nyhavn’s colourful dollhouse-esque buildings are not an accurate depiction of everyday life.