World
Global Liveability Index: Vienna goes top, replaces Melbourne
The Austrian capital of Vienna has leapfrogged Australia's Melbourne to become the world's most pleasant city to live in. On Monday, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) unveiled its findings for the Global Liveability Index 2018, which saw several changes in rankings compared to last year. Notably, no Indian cities made the top 10. Neither did they make the bottom 10. Here's more.
Cities from Australia, Canada, and New Zealand typically dominate
The Global Liveability Index is an annual survey conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), and ranks 140 cities based on a range of factors like infrastructure, access to education and healthcare, crime, political and social stability etc. For almost two decades now, cities from Australia, Canada and New Zealand have dominated the top 10, reflecting their prowess in the aforementioned factors.
Which cities made the top 10?
Vienna's position at the top marks the first time a European city has topped the survey. Vienna was followed by previous topper Melbourne, and Japan's Osaka, to make the top three. Calgary, Sydney, Vancouver, Toronto, Tokyo, Copenhagen, and Adelaide made up the rest of the top 10, respectively, with positions 3, 4, and 5 being decided by very close margins.
So, where are the 'big' cities?
Traditionally hailed 'big' cities New York, London, and Paris ranked 57th, 48th, and 19th respectively, giving credence to the argument that these global business centers, with their overstretched infrastructure, higher crime rates, and exploited migrant labor populations, aren't nodes of prosperity for all.
The bottom 10 was dominated by third world cities
Predictably, third world cities dominated the bottom 10, primarily owing to crime, civil war, civil unrest, terrorism, and their destabilizing effects. Damascus, Syria was the least liveable city, followed by Dhaka (Bangladesh), Lagos (Nigeria), Karachi (Pakistan), Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea), Harare (Zimbabwe), Tripoli (Libya), Douala (Cameroon), Algiers (Algeria), and Dakar (Senegal).
The biggest winners and the biggest losers
In terms of year-on-year improvement, Abidjan (Cote d'Ivoire), Hanoi (Vietnam), Belgrade (Serbia), Tehran (Iran), and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) saw the biggest improvements respectively. Meanwhile, compared to last year's survey, Kiev (Ukraine), San Juan (Puerto Rico), Damascus (Syria), Caracas (Venezuela), and Asuncion (Paraguay) saw the biggest declines in liveability, respectively.
