Due to the pandemic, the rankings of the world’s most liveable cities have jolted, a study released on Wednesday cited that metropolises in Australia, Japan and New Zealand are jumping ahead of those in Europe.
Auckland in New Zealand tops The Economist’s annual survey of the world’s most liveable cities in 2021 followed by Osaka and Tokyo in Japan, Adelaide in Australia and Wellington in New Zealand, all of these cities had a prompt response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to AFP, the Economist Intelligence Unit said Auckland rose to the top of the ranking for its successful attempt in containing the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, which enabled its society to stay open and the city to score firmly. In contrast the European cities fared exceptionaly poorly in this year’s edition.
According to the study, Vienna, was previously the world’s most liveable city between 2018-20, subsequently fell to 12th position. Eight of the top ten biggest declines in the rankings are European cities.
Among the European cities, one of the biggest fall overall was the port city of Hamburg in northern Germany, which fell 34 places to 47th rank.
This trend was influenced by a “stress on hospital resources” which as per the study, increased for most German and French cities and hence resulted in a “deteriorated healthcare score”.
The Economist noted that due to restrictions on movements, pressure on European health systems also had a knock-on effect on culture and overall liveability.
The most significant rise was recorded by Honolulu, Hawaii, in the United States, which came 14th in the ranking and climbed up 46 places because of its curbing in the pandemic and fast vaccination programme.
However, Damascus remains the city where life is most challenging because of the ongoing civil war in Syria’s.
