Colombo up in global ‘Liveability’ index

Saturday, 30 August 2014 04:46 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Colombo has improved in the liveability index compiled by the influential Economist Intelligence Unit, which is linked to the popular magazine The Economist. Colombo is grouped among 10 cities with most change. Others were Taipei Taiwan, Bratislava, Slovakia, Dubai, UAE, Kuwait City, Kuwait, Bogota, Colombia, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Kathmandu, Nepal (all of which are ranked above Colombo), and Algiers, Algeria as well as Harare Zimbabwe. The ranking is based on 30 factors spread across five areas – stability, infrastructure, education, healthcare and environment.

In a report filed by The Economist last week, Colombo has moved a few notches up to be ranked 49th position by 2014 from 2009. According to the 2014 index, Melbourne, Australia remains number one followed by Vienna in Austria. The rest of the top 10 includes Vancouver, Canada, Toronto, Canada, Calgary, Canada, Adelaide, Australia, Sydney, Australia, Helsinki, Finland, Perth, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand. The ranking, which provides scores for lifestyle challenges in 140 cities worldwide, shows that since 2009 average liveability across the world has fallen by 0.7%, led by a 1.3% fall in the score for stability and safety. While this may seem marginal it highlights that over 50 of the cities surveyed have seen declines in liveability over the last five years. Recent conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have underlined continuing fallout from a decade of destabilising events ranging from the war in Iraq to the Palestinian Intifada and the Arab Spring.