Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, has been ranked second among the least liveable cities in the world.

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According to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2021 Global Liveability report, Lagos was behind only Damascus, the capital of Syria, which is ranked the worst city to live in the world.

The EIU annual report ranked 140 cities across the world on criteria including stability, infrastructure, education, and healthcare access.

Damascus’ rating came against the backdrop of the country’s ceaseless civil war, with poor ranking also reserved for conflict-inclined climes where health systems and infrastructure are put under pressure.

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On the other spectrum, Auckland in New Zealand topped the list of the world’s most livable cities for this year followed by Osaka in Japan and Adelaide in Australia.

In the report, the EIU said: “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 study also added: “European cities fared particularly poorly in this year’s edition. Eight of the top ten biggest falls in the rankings are European cities.”

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Vienna, Austria’s capital, fell from first place to 12th, having led the list for several years — usually tying at the top with Melbourne. In turn, Hamburg in northern Germany had the most dramatic fall, dropping 34 places to 47th.

According to the report, the trend was motivated by a “stress on hospital resources” which it stated had increased for most German and French cities, resulting in a “deteriorated healthcare score”.

The EIU said that lockdown measures amid the coronavirus pandemic and movement restrictions reduced overall liveability.

“Cities across the world are now much less liveable than they were before the pandemic began, and we’ve seen that regions such as Europe have been hit particularly hard,” the report added.

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The ten most livable cities in 2021

  1. Auckland, New Zealand
  2. Osaka, Japan
  3. Adelaide, Australia
  4. Wellington, New Zealand
  5. Tokyo, Japan
  6. Perth, Australia
  7. Zurich, Switzerland
  8. Geneva, Switzerland
  9. Melbourne, Australia
  10. Brisbane, Australia

The ten least livable cities in 2021

  1. Damascus, Syria
  2. Lagos, Nigeria
  3. Port Moresby, PNG
  4. Dhaka, Bangladesh
  5. Algiers, Algeria
  6. Tripoli, Libya
  7. Karachi, Pakistan
  8. Harare, Zimbabwe
  9. Douala, Cameroon
  10. Caracas, Venezuela



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