In the battle of the big smokes, when it comes to being family-friendly a survey has shown Melbourne comes out on top of rivals Sydney and Brisbane.

But our most populated cities have been trumped by Tasmanian's Launceston, closely followed by Canberra, Toowoomba, Albury/Wodonga and Adelaide and Perth, which rounded out the top five.

Launceston residents Claire Vos and husband Adam have lived in the city for most of their lives. With their second child due any day, they say it is the perfect place to raise a family.

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"For me, I wouldn't want to raise my kids in a big city. I just think it's important your children feel safe," Claire said.

"Launceston is a city,but everything's so close - like you have everything in one spot, you don't have to travel far to get anywhere and I think it still has that city feel."

The Family Friendly Index was compiled by Suncorp Bank.

According to Suncorp's Craig Fenwick "for the first time we looked at 30 Australian cities and looked at how they rank in terms of things like home affordability, income, access to health and educations services."

Fenwick explains that "some of the things that drove the larger cities down the list a little were things like incomes being high but corresponding home affordability quite low; crime being slightly higher than some of the regional towns; as well as competition to access to services, so whilst those services are there, there's a lot of people demanding them."

While there are pros and cons for every city Fenwick explains that what the survey does is to "look at those things there's tangible info for, and rate that against some of the things that can't be measured - like the weather and some of the great culture that exists in our cities”, Craig said.

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The bright lights of the city are fading in many people's eyes, and a move to regional areas is providing a better lifestyle choice for some.

"There are a lot of positives to living in a major provincial city: less traffic, less crime, you pay less for your mortgage, perhaps both partners don't have to work, so you might be able to survive on one income," Demographer Bernard Salt explained.

Salt says for many families, where they settle will come down to job prospects.

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"I don't think we're steering away from the big three - Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Almost two thirds of Australians live in those major cities, but the reality is that an increasing number of Australians are making other choices," he added.

But not everyone is happy with the survey results. Coffs Harbour Mayor Denise Knight is not impressed her town has been labelled the least family-friendly.

"Don't bag my city," she said. "How can this be the least family-friendly? I've lived here for 30 years, I brought up a family here."

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Knight points out that nowhere "else do you have the mountains meet the sea. So don't talk to me about being number 30. Come here ... come here and have a look."