According to Lovato’s new index, Amsterdam and Osaka are the world’s second and third best cities, respectively, while the world’s least livable city is Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. The Economist, however, points out that the new index has several shortcomings and limitations. First of all, Hong Kong has an unfair advantage with green space because of its unique topography: much of the territory’s landmass consists of sparsely populated islands or steep, vegetation-covered mountainsides that would be difficult to build on. Second, data alone does not reflect the actual livability of city. Case in point: data suggests that Osaka is more livable than Tokyo but The Economist argues that in real life Tokyo is a better place to live in. Another limitation of the new index is that Lovato only surveyed 70 cities, compared to the 140 examined in the EIU index.

Despite its shortcomings, the purpose of the new rankings was to discover new approaches for measuring the world’s best cities, says The Economist.