Taiwan Today

In an Economist Intelligence Unit’s city livability survey released June 8, Taipei was ranked 62nd out of 140 cities around the world. More than 60 percent of cities polled achieved scores between 70 and 80 in the 100-point scale, with one being “intolerable” and 100 being “ideal.” According to the EIU study, the highest-ranked Asian city is Hong Kong (39), followed by Singapore (54), Taipei (62), Tianjin (72), Suzhou (74), Beijing (76), Shenzhen (83), Shanghai (84), Dalian (85), Guangzhou (89) and Qingdao (95). Vancouver is the best city in the world to live, followed by Vienna and Melbourne. Most of the top 10 cities are located in developed countries. Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, was ranked 138th with a score of 38.7. The EIU evaluates each city in five broad categories: stability, health care, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. A total of 140 cities received scores for over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors under these categories. The average score of cities in Western Europe and North America is higher than 90. Some of these scored slightly lower at 86 or 87 in the “stability” section, while their performances in other categories reached between 92 and 98.(WFW-JSM)