These are the best cities for families to live in

A recent study suggests Auckland is better than Wellington when it comes to raising a family. Photo / Unsplash, Supplied

Raising a family can be one of life’s most challenging endeavours, but it could be easier depending on where you live.

In a competition between Auckland and Wellington, the former was found to be a better place to live in a recent study conducted by Australian price comparison website Compare the Market.

If you can travel anywhere, head to Stockholm, Paris or Tokyo, as these were rated the three top cities in the world to raise children in.

The study ranked 38 major cities to find out which were the “best” across four categories: safety, education, expenses and family activities.

Auckland made the list of top 10 cities, placing sixth with an overall score of 5.97, alongside Sydney, Helsinki, Amsterdam and Vienna. Meanwhile, Wellington just made the top 20, ranking 19th with a score of 5.04.

Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean all Auckland parents will find child-rearing a breeze while Wellington families struggle along.

However, it does mean Auckland consistently scored better across 12 different data points, organised into the four categories.

How were the categories scored?

The four categories were made up of 12 different data points.

The “safety and wellbeing” score used data related to safety, happiness, family benefits spending, combined statutory parental leave and child vaccination rates. The “family activities” score used data related to activities, green spaces per capita and walkability.

An “education” score related to the percentage of GDP the Government spends on education, and ‘expenses’ were calculated by considering the average cost of living, income and healthcare costs.

How did Auckland pull ahead?

Both cities scored the same on national data points such as parental leave, education spending, vaccination rates and world happiness scores - where Auckland appeared to pull ahead was in green spaces per capita (75.12 in Auckland versus 10.67 in Wellington), and “things to do with kids” (223 in Auckland versus 61 in Wellington).

Auckland does have an impressive number of green spaces and beaches. Photo / 123rf

However, the score for the number of green spaces per capita did not account for the fact Auckland is far larger in area than Wellington and thus has more areas for green spaces.

Meanwhile, the measure of things to do is, more accurately, “the number of activities and locations to visit that TripAdvisor categorised as ‘things to do with kids’”, according to the study methodology - a measure that doesn’t necessarily represent the actual number of activities.

All 12 data points were weighted equally. However, some families may consider certain things, such as education or green spaces, more important, said Stephen Zeller, general manager of money at Compare the Market.

“Some people might value safety and would prefer to raise a family in a city like Helsinki, Vienna or Zurich, which had the best safety scores. Others might want to look at things to do and green spaces, or affordability and earning potential, instead,” he said.

“When it comes to settling down and raising a family… you want to make sure you’re happy with where you’re living, and that the area suits your family – otherwise, you may have to make compromises on what’s important to you.”