The Aussie cities with the highest wellbeing ranking are revealed

• Report looked at factors such as economy and housing 
• Cities outperformed regions for health 
• READ MORE: Why this photo of an Australian suburb has sparked a huge debat 

Sydney has topped the list in a national report of the top ten places to live in Australia for wellbeing.

The SGS Cities & Regions Wellbeing Index released on Tuesday found a whopping eight of the ten best spots are located in Sydney, with Greater Sydney’s Northern Beaches ranking first.

The report examined seven factors across 518 local government areas, including the economy, housing, and health.

The index also considered environment, income and wealth, employment, knowledge and skills, equality, community and work-life balance factors.

SGS principal partner and lead author of the report Julian Szafraniec said Sydney’s Northern Beaches and locations around it performed well across many areas.

Greater Sydney’s Northern Beaches (pictured) has been ranked number one in the country for wellbeing according to a report released on Tuesday

Northern Beach (pictured Manly Beach) had high levels of community members volunteering and small gender pay gaps, putting them in front

‘They have high levels of income and wealth, and have higher levels of education and health outcomes within those communities,’ he told news.com.au.

‘What tipped the Northern Beaches and some of those areas over the edge was they had more equitable communities.

‘They had higher rates of volunteerism within the community, fewer people with extreme work hours and smaller gender pay gaps than other parts of the nation.’

Queensland also made the list, with Brisbane ranked tenth, while Melbourne came in at 15th.

‘Any of the places that scored highly in the wellbeing index really had to score high across multiple metrics, and Brisbane was one of those.

‘It has a large and diverse economy and it has also scored highly around health outcomes with good access to health care and a healthy community,’ Mr Szafraniec said.

The ACT was ranked second on the list, making it the country’s top-performing region for the second year in a row.

The capital scored highly across the economy, environment and work-life balance factors.

Mr Szafraniec said the index had captured a snapshot of each LGA area and hopes it will be a ‘powerful tool’ for decision-makers.

‘We’re at a time in history when traditional measures of growth and success, such as GDP, don’t make sense anymore. You can have a high-paying job, but you may still not be able to afford a home,’ he said.

‘Business could be booming, and then everything could be stripped away by a major climate event. We need to focus on measuring what matters.’

ACT was second on the list, scoring highly in economic, work-life balance and environmental factors

This is the first year the index considered gender pay gaps.

The largest gaps, which could be up to $500 per week, were in regional Western Australia, followed by Greater Perth and regional Queensland.

Mr Szafraniec said this was often because the economies of rural and regional areas are based around industries such as mining, which tend to be dominated by men.

It wasn’t all bad news for areas outside of Sydney, with Yarra in Melbourne being one of the areas that scored highly in work-life balance.

The regional areas of Streaky Bay and Kangaroo Island, both in South Australia, also high ranked highly for their focus on lifestyle.

Overall, the regions also out-performed their city counterparts when it came to housing affordability, with Lockhart and Bogan in NSW, and Esperance in Western Australia all performing highly on the Rental Affordability Index.

The worst in the housing category was Perth, and the remote Queensland communities of Palm Island and Yarrabah, with the index also considering homelessness and overcrowding in addition to affordability.

The report found life expectancies were lower in rural and regional areas compared to cities (pictured Little Manly Beach)

The regions were worst for health, with the report finding life expectancy in the capital cities to be higher, with a person living in Greater Sydney expected to live until  84.3 years, compared to 81.7 years in regional NSW.

SGS senior associate and lead author of the report Michelle Tjondro said on SGS’s website the next important step is what ‘policymakers, businesses and communities’ do with the findings.

‘As a nation, we must use these findings to inform how we prioritise investment, budget for socio-economic outcomes and advance equitable community wellbeing,’ she said.

TOP PERFORMING LGAs:

1. Northern Beaches, Greater Sydney

2. Australian Capital Territory

3. North Sydney, Greater Sydney

4. Ku-ring-gai, Greater Sydney

5. Hornsby, Greater Sydney

6. Lane Cove Greater Sydney

7. Mosman, Greater Sydney

8. Sutherland, Greater Sydney

9. Sydney

10. Brisbane

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