The suburb is also considered above average for open space, congestion and coast proximity. Those factors aside, the suburb shows room for improvement in many areas, particularly cafes, employment, proximity to schools and walkability.Retail, trains, buses are all key strengths of Thomastown, and the suburb offers excellent proximity to schools. In most other areas assessed in this study, Ashwood is still deemed above average, although there are few cafes and open spaces, plus heavy traffic at times. Employment, culture and cafes are the suburb’s other high rating qualities, but it does score above average in almost all categories assessed.

Hallam’s weaknesses are its high crime rate, low employment and minimal tree cover.St Albans scored well for road congestion, excellent proximity to schools and great access to trains. Congested roads and crime have caused Middle Park’s ranking to slip compared to previous years. St Helena’s liveability would benefit from having more open space, walkability and cafes. What it lacks the most is proximity to education, topographic variation, and its ranking suffers from being a long distance from the coast. The suburb remains above average in most other areas assessed.Box Hill North has a very low crime rate and great tree cover, employment and proximity to schools.

The list has been compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit as part of its Global Liveability Ranking for 2019. Congestion on the roads is another problem.Belgrave ranks second in the tree cover category, third for topographic variation and has few congested roads. It’s also great for tree cover and walkability. The only areas it ranks less than 200 (out of 307) in are crime rate and proximity to the coast, otherwise, Reservoir’s scores are roughly mid-way in most categories. The only areas for which Glen Iris scores exceptionally well are buses and tree cover, but it does rank in the top third of Melbourne suburbs across most areas assessed in this study, leading to an overall top 50 rank. What the suburb needs most is significantly more public transport and open space. Cranbourne East ranks fourth last in the city for topographic variation, fifth last for trams, and is in the bottom 10 for both employment and cafes. Delahey borders Taylors Lakes and is 20 kilometres north-west of the CBD. Collingwood moves up the ranks due to its walkability score – the fourth best in Melbourne according to this study.

Once ranked in the top 10 of this list, Hampton’s liveability has taken a hit in recent years because of the increasingly congested roads and rapid improvement from other suburbs.

Where Coburg North stands to improve most is in crime and proximity to education.Despite recording weak scores for retail, cafes, walkability, and trains, Essendon West is balanced out by having a very low crime rate, plenty of hills and open space (the equal eighth best in Melbourne). Located 14 kilometres north-east of the CBD, Macleod has great aesthetic attributes in the form of hills and open space. It doesn’t have many cafes, but the suburb is easily accessible by bus, offers excellent proximity to schools, has adequate open space, and ranks third in the city for mobile and internet coverage. Where Langwarrin performs well is the categories of education and crime, and it has the second best score for road congestion in the city.Endeavour Hills is located after Dandenong about 31 kilometres from the CBD. Its overall ranking would be further boosted by having more central schools and open space.Aberfeldie is tucked between Essendon, Moonee Ponds and the Maribyrnong River nine kilometres north-west of the CBD. It ranks well below its sibling suburbs for culture and retail, although it is the best of the three for topographic variation and crime. At the opposite end of the scale is Hurstbridge’s rank for proximity to education, which is the worst in the city. Where Prahran doesn’t perform as well is in crime, open space, and congestion, the latter of which is the fifth worst in Melbourne.