The Philippines’ National Capital Region was able to improve four notches in the global ranking of liveable cities, based on the Global Liveability Index 2022 of UK-based The Economist Intelligence Unit which ranked Manila 105th out of 139 cities in terms of liveability.
Last year, Manila ranked 109th. The government reopening the economy and eased mobility curbs in Manila and most of the Philippines was a factor in the improved ranking this year.
EIU’s liveability ranking assesses which cities around the world provide the best or the worst living conditions and quantifies the challenges that an individual might encounter in a certain city. It has five categories, namely stability, health care, culture and environment, education and infrastructure which are taken into account for the ranking. A score of one is considered intolerable and 100 considered ideal.
Manila scored 58.7, which is an improvement from its score of 53.4 in 2021. The improved ranking was due to better performance in the culture and environment and health care categories.
“The city witnessed stringent restrictions last year across various cultural activities, such as access to theaters, concerts and sports events, along with limited availability of restaurants, coffee shops, nightclubs, etc,” EIU Global Liveability Index head Upasana Dutt said.
“But these restrictions were significantly eased by the time of our latest survey. Additionally, the city observed minimal pressure on its health care infrastructure as compared to the previous year on account of higher vaccination rates,” she added.
Because of the devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, government responses played a significant role when it came to assessing the liveability of most cities in the list. Now that the pandemic is hopefully at its end, the continuing challenge of making cities livable remains, not only for Manila and the NCR, but also for all other cities in the country. May the new sets of public officials responsible for our towns and cities always be up to the challenge of finding ways to always improve liveability and the quality of life.*
