Pakistan's Karachi has been ranked among the top five 'least livable' urban centres in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Dawn reported.
On the EIU's Global Livability Index 2023, Karachi is ranked 169th out of a total of 173 cities. Only Lagos, Algiers, Tripoli and Damascus are ranked lower than Karachi.
The Economist Intelligence Unit is the research and analysis division of the Economist Group, providing forecasting and advisory services through research and analysis.
The city is the only one in Karachi to be ranked on the index.
The index focuses on the post-COVID recovery of cities across the world, and rates living conditions based on five categories, including stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure, according to Dawn.
Scores are compiled and judged to evaluate the livability factor within the range of 1-100, where 1 is considered intolerable and 100 is considered ideal.
The city has an overall score of 42.5, which is lower than ideal. It performed most poorly on the stability indicator, with a score of 20, similar to 2022, implying that the situation has not changed much over the past year. It scored 50 on healthcare, 38.7 on culture and environment, 75 on education, and 51.8 on infrastructure.
Karachi's history on the EIU's index is not too good, either. Back in 2019, Karachi was ranked 136 out of 140 cities in the index, while no report was published in 2020. In 2022, it was ranked 134th out of 140 cities.
Most of the top-ranked cities on the index are from Western Europe and Canada. Austrian capital Vienna topped the list for the second year in a row and has a perfect score of 100 on four out of the five indicators, as per Dawn.
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