Harare Loses Its Shine

The EIU, the business information arm of the Economist Group, publisher of The Economist magazine ranked Harare last out of 140 cities surveyed in its 2010 liveability survey.

The EIU said the on-going social and economic crisis in the troubled southern African country ensures that Harare is still the worst of the 140 cities surveyed.

The EIU liveability survey assesses which locations around the world provide the best or the worst living conditions. Assessing liveability has a broad range of uses, from benchmarking perceptions of development levels to assigning a hardship allowance as part of expatriate relocation packages. The EIU’s liveability rating quantifies the challenges that might be presented to an individual’s lifestyle in 140 cities worldwide.

Zimbabwe’s ranking was worse than that of Senegalese capital Dakar ranked 130, Lagos 136 and Algiers at 138.

Canada’s Vancouver once again topped a list of the top 10 most liveable cities in the world, giving the Canadian west coast city an extra boost as it opened the 2010 Winter Olympics.

There was little change in the top positions with Vienna, Melbourne and Toronto still taking the second, third and fourth positions and the top 10 dominated by Canadian and Australian cities which took seven of the 10 slots.