Karachi ranked among 10 least liveable cities

ISLAMABAD: In the latest ranking Karachi has been placed on the list of ten least liveable cities in the world. The Pakistan’s financial hub was ranked at 7th position while Bangladesh capital Dhaka was put at 4th.

As per the 2021 edition of The Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) Global Liveability Ranking, Damascus remains the world's least liveable city.

"Cities across the world are now much less liveable than they were before the [COVID-19] pandemic began, and we've seen that regions such as Europe have been hit particularly hard," the EIU said.

With an average score of 68.6, cities in the Asia-Pacific region scored below the average of 73.09 recorded before the pandemic began.

In most liveable cities "Auckland rose to the top of the ranking owing to its successful approach in containing the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed its society to remain open and the city to score strongly," the EIU said.

"European cities fared particularly poorly in this year's edition," it added. "Eight of the top ten biggest falls in the rankings are European cities."

Vienna, for example, fell from first place to 12th. The Austrian capital had led the list for several years, usually tied at the top with Melbourne.

But Hamburg in northern Germany had the most dramatic fall - dropping 34 places to 47th.

This trend was motivated by a "stress on hospital resources" which the study said had increased for most German and French cities, resulting in a "deteriorated healthcare score".

Lockdown measures and restrictions on movement also reduced overall liveability, the study said.

While the top of the list has shifted, the study said there had been much less movement at the bottom.