Every year, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranks the world’s most liveable cities in the world. The EIU looks at criteria for 140 cities but no Asian cities are in the top 10. Pollution, over-crowed spaces and instability are deterrent factors for Asian metropolis…
BANGKOK – The EIU releases every year the list of the world most liveable cities. Surprising or not, Asian cities do not appear in the top 10. Only Osaka, Tokyo, Seoul Hong Kong and Taipei made it in the top third of the ranking. While Hong Kong ranked 31st, Singapore ranked only 52nd while Bangkok lost two places from 2013 to come up at 103rd. Bangkok’s bad performance was due to the political instability and sporadic violence which affected the Thai capital.
In the top third most liveable cities are however many cities of the Pacific Rim with four Australian metropolis as well as Auckland. The Australian city of Melbourne was tops for the fourth year in a row. Adelaide was the fifth most liveable city, followed by Perth ranking 7th and Sydney ranking 9th. Auckland was the 10th most liveable city in the survey.
The index, designed to help international firms work out how much to pay employees to live and work in a given city, ranks cities based on measures such as stability, health care, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.
In the very bottom tier of liveability are three cities of Asia Pacific: Karachi ranked 136, Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea) at 138 and Dhaka (Bangladesh) at 139.
The Economist Intelligence Unit indicates that at a global level, average instability continues to see marginal declines, with sharp falls in specific hotspots weighing on a more static global backdrop. The average global liveability score has fallen by 0.16 and 0.22 percentage points over the last six and twelve months respectively, to 75.33.When a five-year view is taken, global liveability has declined by 0.68 percentage points, highlighting the fact that the last five years have been characterised by heightened unrest in the wake of the global economic crisis, which has undermined many of the developmental gains of previous years.
Photo caption: The Australian city of Melbourne was tops for the fourth year in a row.
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
