The Global Liveability Index 2022 ranks Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka as the Seventh least liveable city in the world, prepared by Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

Dhaka has moved up three spots from last year ranking.

Dhaka scored 39.2 out of 100. It ranked 166th out of 172 cities on the Global Liveability Index for 2022.

Its score was 33.5 on the list prepared in 2021.

The slight improvement in Dhaka’s position was largely influenced by the lifting of the Covid-19 restrictions, the EIU said in its report published on Thursday.

Besides, Vienna has re-captured the top spot that it held three years ago, before it slipped to 12th place in 2021 due to the Covid-induced closure of museums and restaurants.

The Austrian capital just pipped Denmark’s Copenhagen to the post, thanks to a higher healthcare score, while Switzerland’s Zurich and Canada’s Calgary and Vancouver round out the top five.

Languishing at the bottom of 173 cities are Tripoli in Libya, the Nigerian city of Lagos and Syria’s Damascus.

“For the past two years, EIU’s global liveability rankings have been largely driven by the Covid-19 pandemic, with lockdowns and social distancing measures affecting scores for culture, education and healthcare in cities across the world,”

the report noted.

“However, in our most recent survey, the index has normalised, as restrictions have been lifted in many countries,” it added.

The only non-European or Canadian cities to break into the top 10 were Osaka in Japan and Australia’s Melbourne, which came in joint 10th place.

The EIU ranks cities on more than 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

The EIU rankings were shaken up due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to the 2020 index being scrapped and fluctuations in the 2021 rankings as lockdowns and social distancing measures affected scores for culture, education and healthcare shifted in cities across the world.

However, the 2022 version of the index saw scores normalise as pandemic restrictions were lifted.

Thirty-three new cities were added to the index this year, including 11 in China.