Present Perfect Simple VS Present perfect continue

[esophea]

I have lived in London for 5 years.
I have been living in london for 5 years.

Which one is better

[hector51]

normally,there is hardly any difference in meaning between the two sentence above,but we usually use the present perfect continuous to answer the question "how long" (in this case,the question may be :"how long have you been living in London) so I think it's better to use the present perfect continuous .

only my 2 cents , hope it will help!

[Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim]

Originally Posted by esophea

I have lived in London for 5 years.
I have been living in london for 5 years.
Which one is better

In your example the two tenses can be used interchangeably but:
1. Present perfect simple can be used with dynamic and stative verbs whereas the continuous form only with dynamic verbs. You can't use it with verbs like: understand, know...)
2. Present perfect continuous puts the focus on the action (dynamic: no mention whether the action (possibly without interruption) is complete or not) whereas the simple on results (I have written five letters).
3. Sometimes present perfect continuous answers questions like:
What have you been doing? The speaker is only interested to find out:
I have been reading. (this is how I spent my time)