PremiumIn India, New Delhi and Mumbai rank 118th and 119th out of 140 cities according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Liveability Index 2019 released on Wednesday. The survey ranks countries across indicators including stability, healthcare, education, infrastructure, culture and environment.
Vienna in Austria, Melbourne and Sydney in Australia make the top three cities while Damascus in Syria, Lagos in Nigeria and Dhaka in Bangladesh rank in the bottom. The index assesses which locations around the world provide the best or the worst living conditions. Each factor in a city is rated as acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable.
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According to the report deterioration in culture and environment scores is of concern including the quality of air in cities like New Delhi. The 2018 update to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Ambient Air Quality Database shows that New Delhi currently boasts the sixth highest annual mean concentration of fine particulate matter among cities around the world, the report said.
New Delhi, which has dropped six ranks since last year’s Global Livability Index has also seen an increase in cases of petty crimes. Mumbai’s rank also fell in this year’s index by two places, as a result of a downgrade in its culture category.
“A slew of cities in emerging markets that are among the most exposed to the effects of climate change have seen their scores downgraded. These include New Delhi in India, which suffers from appalling air quality, Cairo in Egypt (where air quality is also a major issue) and Dhaka in Bangladesh," the report said.
Of the 37 Asian and Australasian cities included in the index, five are among the ten most liveable and six are among the 20 least liveable.
