Muscat is sixth most liveable city in the Middle East: Report

Oman scores high in indices of stability (80), education (83.3), infrastructure (85.7), while low in healthcare (62.5) and culture and environment (47).

In this year’s Global Liveability Index 2018 by Economist Intelligence Unit, Vienna displaces Melbourne as the most liveable city in the world.

The two cities have been neck-and-neck in the annual survey of 140 urban centres for years, and are separated by less than a point. Vienna scored 99.1 and Melbourne scored 98.4.

Melbourne has clinched the title for the past seven editions but a downgraded threat of militant attacks in western Europe, as well as the Austrian capital's low crime rate, helped nudge Vienna into first place.

The rankings are based on five broad categories namely stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

In the Middle East, Dubai (overall rank of 69) leads the ranking followed by Abu Dhabi (71), Tel Aviv (76), Kuwait City (85), Doha (87), Muscat (90), Bahrain (94), Amman (98), Riyadh (108) and Jeddah (113).

Of the 140 surveyed cities, 49 per cent registered negative changes in their overall liveability rank in the past six months and 34 per cent experienced positive movements (the rest did not record any change). Yet, despite the total number of negative movements outweighing the positive ones, the rankings show that overall liveability across all cities surveyed increased by 0.7 per cent in the past six months and 0.9 per cent in the past year.

Improvements were recorded across all five categories measured, but especially in stability, which increased by 2.5 per cent overall. This trend reflects positive developments in this category, despite threats of terrorism and unrest that cities around the world continue to grapple with. Only ten cities have registered a decline in their liveability ratings over the past six months, largely reflecting an impact on cultural and environmental indicators, the report stated.

“The only cities that have seen a fall in their stability indicators over the past six months are Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the UAE, Colombo (130) in Sri Lanka and Warsaw (65) in Poland. In Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the threat of military conflict has increased owing to the UAE’s recent interventions extending its military reach in Yemen and Somalia.

“The UAE’s deployment of armed forces in Yemen continue to pose a threat in the country and the region. Sri Lanka’s declaration of a temporary nationwide state of emergency in March, following clashes between Sinhalese Buddhist and Tamil Muslim communities, impacted Colombo’s civil unrest score,” it added.