Global Liveability Index: EIU:
Auckland (New Zealand) has topped the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Global Liveability Index of 140 cities around the world.
- Austria’s Vienna, number one in both 2018 and 2019, has completely dropped out of the top 10 after being heavily affected by Covid-19, and now ranks 12.
- Auckland rose to the top of the ranking owing to its successful approach in containing the Covid-19 pandemic, which allowed its society to remain open and the city to score strongly on a number of metrics including education, culture, and environment.
- Damascus remains the world’s least liveable city, as the effects of the civil war in Syria continue to take their toll.
- Most of the previous ten least liveable cities remain in the bottom ten this year, including Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Karachi (Pakistan) in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
- However, there is a strong contingent of cities in the APAC region at the top of the rankings, with Osaka, Adelaide, Tokyo and Wellington rounding out the top five.
- Apart from cities in New Zealand, Australia and Japan, other cities in the Asia-Pacific region such as Taipei (Taiwan) (33rd) and Singapore (34th) have also performed well.
Top 3 Liveable Cities:
- Auckland (New Zealand), Osaka (Japan), Adelaide (Australia).
Bottom 3 Liveable Cities:
- Damascus (Syria), Lagos (Nigeria), Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea).
About Global Liveability Index:
- The index takes into account more than 30 qualitative and quantitative factors spanning five broad categories: stability (25%), healthcare (20%), culture and environment (25%), education (10%), and infrastructure (20%).
- Due to the pandemic, the EIU added new indicators such as stress on healthcare resources as well as restrictions around local sporting events, theatres, music concerts, restaurants, and schools.
