Dhaka has ranked as the seventh least liveable city, moving up three notches from last year, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Liveability Index 2022
According to the report published on Thursday, the capital moved up a few spots due to lifting restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dhaka scored 39.2 out of 100 ranking 166th out of 172 cities on the index.
Last year the score was 33.5 and the capital ranked 137th among 140 in 2021. The ranking stood at 138th and 139th in 2019 and 2018 respectively.
The global average liveability score has rebounded to 73.6 (out of 100), up from 69.1 a year ago.
However, this is still lower than the average of 75.9 reported before the pandemic.
The EIU ranks cities on more than 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.
For the past two years, EIU’s global liveability rankings have been largely driven by the covid-19 pandemic, the report said.
With lockdowns and social distancing measures affecting scores for culture, education and healthcare in cities across the world. However, in our most recent survey, the index has normalised, as restrictions have been lifted in many countries, it added.
Vienna has rebounded to the top spot it held three years ago, before it slipped to 12th place in 2021 due to the closure of museums and restaurants owing to the Covid restrictions.
The top ten of the rankings were dominated by western European cities, along with several from Canada.
In second place, behind Vienna, is Copenhagen, while Calgary has jumped from joined Zurich in a joint third position. Japan’s Osaka and Australia’s Melbourne jointly ranked 10th.
London, rose 27 places to take 33rd position, and Los Angeles, moved up 18 places to take the 37th spot.
At the bottom of the list is Tripoli in Libya, the Nigerian city of Lagos and Syria's Damascus.
Ukraine’s Kiev was excluded from the list as due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February.
