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For the third time in the past five years, Vienna has captured the top spot in the Global Liveability Index, an annual report from The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) published on Thursday.

The top ten rankings were dominated by western European cities, which make up half of those on the list, Euronews reports.

Copenhagen follows Vienna in second place, with Zurich taking third place with Calgary in Canada.

Not far behind is Geneva in number six, followed by Frankfurt at seven. Amsterdam secured number nine.

The report says mid-sized cities in the wealthiest countries tended to fare exceptionally well in the survey.

But this year, the top ten cities are also those that have managed “to go back to normal” with fewer COVID-19 restrictions.

The pandemic has largely cast a long shadow over the EIU’s global liveability rankings for the last two years, with lockdowns and social distancing measures affecting all the report’s indicators.

But the world is getting back to normal, according to the data compiled in the report.

Thanks to the ongoing positive evolution of the pandemic, the global average liveability score has also recovered from 69.1 to 73.6 since last year.

This is pretty close to pre-pandemic levels which sat at 75.9.

Cities that were king in the rankings before the pandemic have also gained back their rightful place.

Vienna, which went all the way to 12th place in the 2021 rankings has rebounded to first place, the position it once held in 2018 and 2019.