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What is the News? Economist Intelligence Unit(EIU) has released the Global Liveability Index 2021.
About Global Liveability Index:
- The index assesses the locations that provide the best and the worst living conditions around the world. It assesses 140 cities around the world.
- Parameters: The index takes into account more than 30 qualitative and quantitative factors. These factors are spanning five broad categories: stability (25%), healthcare (20%), culture and environment (25%), education (10%), and infrastructure (20%).
- However, due to the pandemic, the EIU added new indicators to it. It includes stress on healthcare resources as well as restrictions around local sporting events, theatres, music concerts, restaurants, and schools.
- Scores: Each factor in a city is rated as acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable, or intolerable. Factor-wise scores are then compiled and weighted to provide a score of 1–100 where 1 is considered intolerable and 100 is considered ideal.
Read Also :-India’s low rank in Global Health Index, 2020
Key Takeaways from the index:
- Top Five Liveable Cities: Auckland (New Zealand), Osaka (Japan), Adelaide (Australia), Wellington (New Zealand), and Tokyo (Japan).
- Top Five Least Liveable Cities: Damascus (Syria), Lagos (Nigeria), Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea), Dhaka (Bangladesh), and Algiers (Algeria).
Other Takeaways from the index:
- The Covid-19 pandemic has reduced liveability level. Cities experience lockdowns and significant strains on their healthcare system.
- Impact: This led to an unprecedented level of change in the rankings, with many of the cities that were previously ranked as the most liveable came down.
- Austria’s Vienna was number one in both 2018 and 2019. However, it is out of the top 10 due to the effects of Covid-19 and now ranks 12.
- Auckland topped the ranking due to its successful approach in containing the Covid-19 pandemic. It 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 continues to take their toll.
Read Also :-EIU’s Democracy Index – India at 53rd Position
Source: Hindustan Times
