Manila Drops Eight Places in Safe Cities Index

Manila City skyline as seen from Harbour Square

PHOTO BY Shutterstock

(SPOT.ph) Between placing last in New York-based Global Finance Magazine's "World's Safest Countries" and being in the bottom half of Sydney-based Institute for Economics and Peace's Global Peace Index, it seems that the Philippines is not doing well in world safety rankings. London-based The Economist Intelligence Unit just revealed their biennial Safe Cities Index for 2021, and Manila ranks 51st out of 60 cities. This is eight notches lower than its previous ranking of 43rd in 2019.

Also read: The Philippines Has Been Named Least Safe Country in the World

The Safe Cities Index ranked Copenhagen (Denmark), Toronto (Canada), Singapore, Sydney (Australia), and Tokyo (Japan) among the top five overall; while the bottom five are Lagos (Nigeria), Cairo (Egypt), Caracas (Venezuela), Karachi (Pakistan), and Yangon (Myanmar).

PHOTO BY website/safe cities index

According to The Economist Intelligence Unit, the Safe Cities Index is a "comprehensive benchmarking tool for urban safety that ranks 60 cities on more than 60 parameters for urban safety." Scores consider five pillars, which include digital security, health security, infrastructure security, personal security, and environmental security. Under each pillar, indicators are also spelled out, such as availability and quality of public healthcare and pandemic preparedness for health; use of data-driven techniques for crime and threat of military conflict for personal security; and pedestrian friendliness and enforcement of  transport safety for infrastructure.

Manila's overall score is at 52.5 out of 100. The city also slipped lower in its score for four out of five pillars. (The fifth pillar, environmental security, was only added this year.) Manila's ranking for digital security is at 49th (from 45th in 2019); health security is at 54th (from 48th); infrastructure security is at 52nd (from 46th); and personal security is at 55th (from 40th).

The Safe Cities Index 2021 is the fourth edition of this benchmarking exercise. The Economist is an international news weekly publication based in Westminster, London. It was founded in 1843.

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Source: Spot PH