Dhaka has ranked as the seventh least liveable city in the world, two places below Kyiv, the war-torn Ukraine capital, according to the latest Global Liveability Index 2023.

According to the index published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Dhaka scored 43.8 out of 100 – same as Zimbabwe’s Harare, ranking 167th out of 173 cities on the index.

The EIU ranks cities on more than 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. Each factor in a city is rated as acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable.

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Dhaka scored 50 out of 100 in terms of stability which sees a decline compared to 2022. In terms of healthcare and education, the Bangladeshi capital saw a massive improvement in scores. Dhaka scored 41.7 and 75 for healthcare and education respectively, compared to 29.2 and 41.7 in 2022. 

In 2022, Dhaka’s overall score was 39.2 out of 100. However, the city has seen no improvement in terms of culture and environment (40.5) and infrastructure (26.8) in 2023.

Although many Asian cities have scored better in healthcare and education in EIU’s Liveability Index for 2023, cities in the Middle East and Africa — following the Covid-19 pandemic — have slipped backwards since last year, amid several instances of civil unrest around the world.

The average index score across all 172 cities (excluding Kyiv) in the survey has now reached 76.2 out of 100, up from 73.2 a year ago, the report shows.

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Austria’s Vienna has retained its top spot as the world’s most liveable city in the world with a score of 98.4 out of 100. In contrast, Syria’s Damascus ranked as the world’s most unliveable city in the world with a score of 30.7 out of 100.

While Asia-Pacific cities have made some of the biggest gains as their Covid-19 restrictions were lifted, Western European cities have slipped in the ranking for 2023 as worker strikes and other civil unrest have impacted their stability.

Kyiv was included in this year’s ranking after having been forced out by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The city ranked a lowly 165th out of the 173 cities in the index as its stability and infrastructure were damaged by the war.

Meanwhile, Moscow, the Russian capital, which fell to 96th place in 2022, has remained stable this year, the EIU report shows.

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Top 10 Most Liveable Cities

1.       Vienna (98.4)

2.       Copenhagen (98.0)

3.       Melbourne (97.7)

4.       Sydney (97.4)

5.       Vancouver (97.3)

6.       Zurich (97.1)

7.       Calgary (96.8)

8.       Geneva (96.8)

9.       Toronto (96.5)

10.   Osaka (96.0)

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Top 10 Least Liveable Cities

1.       Damascus (30.7)

2.       Tripoli (40.1)

3.       Algiers (42.0) 

4.       Lagos (42.2)

5.       Karachi (42.5)

6.       Port Moresby (43.4)

7.       Dhaka (43.8)

8.       Harare (43.8)

9.       Kyiv (44.0)

10.   Douala (46.4)

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