Karachi in Pakistan is one of world’s worst city to live in as per a survey conducted by GlobalLiveability Report of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Karachi stands at 134th spot, followed by Algiers (135), Port Moresby (136), Dhaka (137), Tripoli (138), and (139), and Damascus at 140. The survey was conducted across 140 cities.
The other worst cities to live in are Harare (133), Douala (132) and Kiev (131). The agency conducting the survey took many factors into consideration like happiness, social services, growing economy etc. EIU also released a list of world’s best cities sketched out that in many cities around the world, the bar of standard of living has raised and with this globally the average livability metric has gone up in years.
The best cities to live in are: 1. Melbourne/Australia, 2. Vienna/Austria, 3. Vancouver/Canada, 4. Calgary/Canada, 5. Adelaide, Australia, 6. Perth/Australia, 7. Auckland/New Zealand, 8. Helsinki/Finland, 9. Hamburg/Germany. The rankings of top five cities remain unchanged, the past few years have seen increasing instability across the world, causing volatility in the scores of many cities. Unfortunately, Sydney city of Australia did not feature on the list of best cities this year.
The criteria for ranking these cities was the strength, healthcare system, culture and atmosphere, education, high crime rate, transportation and infrastructure. These were the qualitative and quantitative factors upon which cities were ranked.
The ethnic, political, and sectarian fissures have denied the city the opportunity for economic growth. These fissures are also responsible, at least partly, for Karachi being listed as one of the least liveable. While Karachi faces tremendous challenges, most could be addressed with good governance. For instance, the clash between institutions responsible for the worsening of law and order and the environment in the city is completely avoidable.