The survey is based on evaluation of criteria such as political and socioeconomic factors, environmental factors, health and sanitisation, education, transport and other public services.

All cities are compared to New York as the base city, with an index score of 100.

Auckland scored 107.4 points, on par with Vancouver, while Wellington scored 105.9 to be ranked 37 places ahead of New York, 22 ahead of Paris and 42 ahead of Rome.