What is “liveability”? According to The Economist Intelligence Unit, it is a blend of the stability of government and business, strong and reliable infrastructure, schools and healthcare, culture and entertainment, and even sporting events. It uses the factors to rate the 173 cities that are included in The Global Liveability Index 2023.
The index has the highest possible score of 100 and the lowest of zero. Most of the cities high up in the index ranking are old cities in Europe, which have centuries-long histories of open government, and metros in Australia and Canada. Among the top ten cities (11 because of ties) on the list, all but two are in these countries–-Auckland (96 score), and Osaka (96). We have also looked at the worst cities to live in in every state.
The other cities in the top 10 are led by Vienna (98.4), Copenhagen (98), Melbourne (97.7), Sydney (97.4), Vancouver (97.3). Zurich (97.1), Calgary (96.8), Geneva (96.8), and Toronto (96.5). Vienna received scores of 100 for stability, healthcare, education, and infrastructure. The only metric for which its score was not perfect was culture and environment (93.5)
The city at the bottom of the list–Damascus–has a score of 30.7. It was much worse than the next worst city–Tripoli, Libya, which had a score of 40.1.
Damascus, a city of 2.5 million people, is the capital of Syria and has been called the “oldest capital in the world,” according to the Guinness Book of World Records. It has been a city since 2,500 BC.
The horrors of Syria have been described at length in the CIA Factbook. Ten years of civil war have killed over 300,000 people. Over six million people have lost their homes. The refugee crisis does not appear to have a solution. The researchers at the Factbook wrote: “The conflict in Syria remains one of the two largest displacement crises worldwide (the other is the invasion of Ukraine).” The country is also poor. It has one of the lowest GDPs per capita in the world.
The Economist Intelligence Unit offers little hope that the situation in Damascus will improve.
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