Economist: Tel Aviv ranked 76th city for quality of life

Tel Aviv Photo: Shutterstock
Tel Aviv Photo: Shutterstock

The Israeli city was dragged down in the rankings by its poor score on personal safety because of the fear of military conflict and terror attacks.

Vienna has the world's highest quality of life, according to a rating of cities by "The Economist" Intelligence Unit (EIU). The Austrian capital was followed by Melbourne, Australia in second place and Osaka, Japan in third place. The only Israeli city to appear in the rating is Tel Aviv in 76th place out of 140 rated cities. At the bottom is Damascus in Syria.

"The Economist" bases its rating on five variables: personal safety and infrastructure are accorded the most weight, with health services, culture, and education rounding out the list. Tel Aviv's average rating was 77.4 points, including a near-perfect 95.8 score in health services (tied for 26th place with Copenhagen, Oakland, and Reykjavik). Tel Aviv was awarded a 91.7 score in education, putting it 46th place in this category together with cities such as Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Helsinki, Kuala Lumpur, Manchester, Moscow, and others. Tel Aviv's infrastructure rating was 80.4, putting it in 75th place together with Kuala Lumpur and Lisbon. Tel Aviv was awarded 75 points for culture and the environment, good for 80th place in that category.

What dramatically detracted from Tel Aviv's average rating was the personal security variable, which is based on crime rates, terrorism threats, risk of military conflict, and concern about civilian conflicts. Tel Aviv's rating was only 45 points, putting it in a tie for 131st place with Tripoli.

The 10 cities with the overall highest rating included Calgary, Canada in fourth place, Sidney, Australia in fifth, Vancouver in sixth, Tokyo in seventh, and Toronto in eighth. The highest-rated European city was Copenhagen, Denmark in ninth, with Adelaide, Australian rounding out the top 10. Other high-rated European cities were Zurich in 11th place, Amsterdam (17), Paris in (19), Berlin (21), Barcelona (30), and Madrid (39). The highest-rated UK city was Manchester (35), with London being rated in 48th place.

Large US cities also failed to come high on the list. New York was only in 57th place. Washington was the highest-rated US city at 37, followed by Minneapolis (39), Boston (42), and Chicago and Miami (tied for 44th place).

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 14, 2018

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2018

Tel Aviv Photo: Shutterstock
Tel Aviv Photo: Shutterstock
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