Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, has been ranked Fourth City with the most deplorable living condition in the world.
The ranking is based Economist Intelligence Unit, EIU’s 2023 Global Liveability which lists Lagos as fourth worst place to live in.
The report surveyed 173 cities and used 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.
Lagos was ranked above Algiers, the capital of Algeria; Tripoli, Libya’s capital, and Damascus, the capital of war-ravaged Syria.
EIU said Lagos moved up the ranks after seeing improvements in healthcare and education but added that corruption is still endemic.
In 2022, Lagos was the second worst liveable city after retaining the position for two consecutive years and was only behind Damascus which has been held down on the list by social unrest, political upheaval, terrorism, and conflict.
“Even at the bottom of our rankings, cities such as Lagos (Nigeria) and Algiers (Algeria) have gained ground, with some improvements in their healthcare and education systems. Both are in countries that are energy exporters and have to some extent benefited from higher global oil and gas prices.
“Although corruption continues to be an issue, some additional public funding has been made available for infrastructure and public services, which have also benefited from the decline in COVID cases.”
Vienna, the Austrian capital, and Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, retained their positions as first and second most liveable cities in the world owing to their “unsurpassed combination of stability, good infrastructure, strong education, and healthcare services, and plenty of culture and entertainment”.
Melbourne and Sydney, cities in Australia, and Vancouver in Canada came in as third, fourth, and fifth places respectively on top of the ranks