Posted by ACHILLEUS UCHEGBU,Deputy News Editor on
Lagos, Nigeria's economic hub and Centre of Excellence has been voted the fifth worst city to live in by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) just as Vancouver, Canada ranked first on the list of top 10 best cities to live in.
Lagos, Nigeria's economic hub and Centre of Excellence has been voted the fifth worst city to live in by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) just as Vancouver, Canada ranked first on the list of top 10 best cities to live in.
Other cities in the bottom 10, from the least are Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea), Dhaka (Indonesia), Karachi (Pakistan), Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Harare (Zimbabwe), Douala (Cameroon) and Tehran (Iran).
Cities ranked among the top 10 best along with Vancouver are Melbourne (Australia), Vienna (Austria), Geneva (Switzerland), Perth (Australia), Sydney (Australia), Zurich (Switzerland), Toronto (Canada) and Calgary (Canada).
In the EIU survey released yesterday, 127 cities were ranked in terms of personal risk, infrastructure and the availability of goods and services.
All the cities that fell into the top "liveability" bracket, were based in Canada, Australia and Western Europe.
EIU said the worst places were Algiers in Algeria and Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea because "many aspects of daily life present challenges."
Canadian cities scored well, as did Austria's Vienna and Switzerland's Geneva, because they are not seen as targets for terror attacks.
The main uncertainties for people living in the cities are climate-related, in the current global political climate, it is no surprise that the most desirable destinations are those with the lower perceived threat of terrorism," Jon Copestake, Editor of the EIU report, said.
The survey has produced a mixed picture of the world's cities. London was ranked in the 10th group, on a par with Dublin and Los Angeles, but one place below Manchester, four behind Berlin, five lower than Tokyo, and six off Helsinki, Frankfurt and Stockholm.
In Latin America, "no city manages to present ideal living conditions, neither do any fall into the category where extreme difficulties are faced", the EIU further stated.
Montevideo in Uruguay, Santiago in Chile and Buenos Aires in Argentina offer the region's best conditions. Bogota in Colombia and Caracas in Venezuela score the least favourably.
In Asia, cities in Japan, South Korea, Singapore, China and Taiwan all score well, as do Australia's main hubs.
Africa and the Middle East fare less well, with the EIU citing concerns about terror attacks, and economic and political instability.