Karachi Ranked 57th Among the World’s Safest Cities

The Economist Intelligence Unit has issued an index ranking 60 metropolises around the world based on their digital, health and personal security, infrastructure, and lifestyle.

Called “Safe Cities Index” (SCI), in this index Pakistan’s largest city Karachi on 57th spot in top 60 cities with just 39 points out of 100.

1^st = Top of the list is Japan’s capital city Tokyo was at score of 92.0.

2^nd = Singapore higher second with 91.5 and another Japanese metropolis, Osaka, was ranked 3rd with 90.9 points.

4^th & 8^th = Entertainingly, only two European cities, Amsterdam and Copenhagen, could make it to the top ten, at number four and number eight respectively.

3^rd = Singapore is third on the SCI index for 2019.

7^th = The US capital Washington D.C. was the only American city in the first ten, at number 7.

11^th = Chicago was ranked at 11th place.

10^th = Australia’s capital Melbourne was ranked 10th.

Here’s the list of top 10 cities according to the SCI:

The last city (60th) on the list is Lagos in Nigeria, with a score of 38.1.

Cities ranked in the bottom five are Caracas (Venezuela), Yangon (Myanmar), Karachi (Pakistan) and Dhaka (Bangladesh).

Karachi has ranked low — 57th out of 60 — on The Economist’s Safe Cities Index 2019. However, this rank is an improvement over 2017 ranking of last. 

Karachi’s general rank was 57 out of 60, with a score of 43.5. The average was 71.2. It ranked poorer than Mumbai (45), New Delhi (52) and Dhaka (56).

The overall ranking was an average of four rankings — personal security, digital security, health security and infrastructure security.

In personal security, Karachi ranked 58, with a score of 45.9. The average score was 77. The lowest on the list was Lagos and highest was Singapore. In digital security, Karachi ranked 52 and health security it ranked 50. However, in infrastructure security it ranked 55, two places above New Delhi.

The report said “in any city where you can often see a woman walking alone at night, you can bet that is a safe city.” This analogy was a simplification of its entire ranking taking into account personal security, infrastructure (places to walk and lighting) and health (no air pollution). Regarding digital safety, it said the “scene would seem far less safe were the contactless debit cards in our pedestrian’s purse charged by someone with a hidden RFC reader walking in the other direction”.

In another ranking in the same report, it noted that Karachi is partially ready for disaster risk. Disaster risk is included and accounted for in its active national development plan or strategy but not in its city level urban planning or design.

“Nevertheless, the greater risk from shocks appears to be in the world’s emerging mega-cities such as Karachi, Dhaka and Lagos. “many low- and middle-income cities face the potential for catastrophic risk; they are exposed to climate change and insecure in health terms,” read the report.