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Manila ranked among least safe cities in the world

Out of the 60 countries examined by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Manila ranked among the five least safe cities in the world, placing 55 in the overall Safe Cities Index, which covered four categories of security: digital, health, infrastructure, and physical

The report found that security remained closely related to wealth, so while cities in developed countries dominated the top half of the index, the lower half was dominated by cities in poorer countries.

The Philippines’ capital scored 54.86 in the overall index, 0.36 points below Caracas, and a mere 0.53 points above fellow Southeast Asian city Ho Chi Minh City, followed by Jakarta, Dhaka, Yangon and Karachi.

In terms of digital security, Manila also sat at the bottom two with 36.61 points, as income levels appeared to have driven the relative performance of cities on digital security.

Four of the five cities at the bottom of the digital security index are also low-income cities: Ho Chi Minh, Yangon, and Dhaka.

“These cities often lack technical skills and competing challenges such as tackling infectious diseases and poverty can push cybersecurity lower on the list of priorities,” the report noted.

Manila, the city found to have the most number of deaths from natural disasters, also placed 56th in terms of infrastructure security, with 52.89 points.

All cities placed on the top ten of the index were either high- or upper-middle income cities, while the bottom half of the list was dominated by lower-income cities: Mumbai, Delhi, Yangon, Karachi and Dhaka.

“General affluence appears to drive infrastructure security,” the report said, “Globally, massive amounts of investment will be required to upgrade old infrastructure”

Overall, developing Asian and European cities remained at the top of the index, led by Tokyo, Singapore, Osaka, Hongkong, Stockholm, Amsterdam and Zurich. While Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa dominated the bottom of the index.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

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