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Five out of ten cities that are not liveable are found on the African continent according to a report by the Economic Intelligence Unit, EIU.
Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital was ranked the second worst city to live in globally but that meant it is the worst in Africa according to the global ranking report.
The Economic Intelligence Unit, EIU’s, Global Liveability Index 2021 ranked 140 cities in a report titled: “How the COVID-19 pandemic affected liveability worldwide.”
Lagos ranked 139th only behind the Syrian capital Damascus but the four other African capitals listed along Lagos were: Algiers, Algeria (fifth worse), Tripoli, Libya (sixth), Harare, Zimbabwe and Douala, Cameroon (eighth and ninth respectively).
The data employed in the ranking was collected between February 22nd to March 21st, 2021, with major considerations on issues like border closures, ability to handle health crisis, and roll out of vaccinations.
To rank the cities, the report focuses on five broad categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.
Every city is assigned a rating for relative comfort for over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across the categories.
Top Ten least livable cities in 2021
1. Damascus, Syria
2. Lagos, Nigeria
3. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
4. Dhaka, Bangladesh
5. Algiers, Algeria
6. Tripoli, Libya
7. Karachi, Pakistan
8. Harare, Zimbabwe
9. Douala, Cameroon
10. Caracas, Venezuela
According to the report, the poorest ranking cities are struggling with growing civil unrest and military conflicts a major reason for being in the worst ten.
About the ranking
According to the EIU: The concept of liveability is simple: it assesses which locations around the world provide the best and worst living conditions.
Assessing liveability has a broad range of uses, from benchmarking perceptions of development levels to assigning a hardship allowance as part of expatriate relocation packages.
City officials and urban policymakers can use the rankings to benchmark target cities against the top-ranked cities.
The ratings can help them to understand the gap between target cities and the best-ranked cities across different categories. This in turn should help to frame policies and target investors.
Auckland, in New Zealand, topped the list of The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Liveability rankings, based on the city’s ability to contain the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic faster and thus lift restrictions earlier, unlike others around the world.
