Bangladesh capital Dhaka still remains near the bottom of the global list of safe cities, emerging 54th out of 60 cities in the Safe Cities Index 2021.
The Safe Cities Index is a report from The Economist Intelligence Unit, sponsored by NEC Corporation. The report has been prepared based on the fourth iteration of the index, which ranks 60 cities across 76 different indicators covering digital, health, infrastructure, personal and environmental security.
Findings from the index were supplemented with wide-ranging research and in-depth interviews with experts in the field.
Dhaka's score stands at 48.9 while Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, tops the list with a score of 82.4. Bottom of the list, at number 60, is Yangon of Myanmar, which managed only 39.5.
However, Dhaka has made some progress in terms of environmental protection. Based on this indicator, Dhaka ranks 47th. But in terms of digital security, it lags behind at 56. In terms of healthcare, infrastructure and personal security, Dhaka ranks 52nd, 55th and 54th respectively.
Karachi of Pakistan fell behind Dhaka in South Asia, one step ahead of Yangon. India's Mumbai is ranked 50th, two steps ahead of the country's capital, New Delhi.
Toronto came out second in the ranking, scoring 82.2
Covid-19 is the first global pandemic to strike humanity since we became a predominantly urban species. This has enhanced the disease’s opportunities to spread, but also comes at a time when healthcare systems have a greater capacity to respond, the report read.
In such circumstances, health is an obvious place to begin a discussion of urban security in 2021.
In all four editions of the index, six cities – Amsterdam, Melbourne, Tokyo, Toronto, Singapore and Sydney – have all figured among the leading ten, with only a few points separating them.
Income and transparency remain strongly correlated with higher index scores.
