Beijing made the list of the top 10 most livable cities in China for 2019-2020, which was released by China Central Television on Monday. It was the first time in past 14 years that the capital was included on the list.

In total, residents of 36 large and medium-sized cities across the country were surveyed. Launched by the National Bureau of Statistics, China Post Group and the National Institute of Development at Peking University, the survey collected 130,000 responses from people across the country.

A sense of contentment, happiness and security were the three top criteria in the survey.

The survey reveals that among the 21 satisfaction indicators for urban governance and social services, Beijing residents expressed "high satisfaction" for medical services, employment environment, food safety, legal environment and elderly care services.

Among the factors that affect happiness, residents in Beijing put the most value on income level, health status, social security and ecological environment.

Among them, confidence in the expected increase in income has been rising for four consecutive years, while the most confident are those aged 18-35 and the over 60s.

As a mega city, Beijing has been constantly working to achieve a model of harmonious and livable development.

In terms of air quality, the average concentration of PM2.5 in Beijing was 42 micrograms per cubic meter in 2019, a significant decrease of 17.6 percent over the previous year.

Compared with the national average of 2.42 hours of leisure time per day, Beijing residents are relatively busier, with an average of 2.33 hours per day.