The coronavirus pandemic has drastically changed people’s worldview. What we once thought was safe may no longer work that way. Not surprisingly, this unexpected health crisis has led to a change in the ranking of the safest cities in the world.
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The Danish capital, Copenhagen, surpassed former leaders such as Tokyo, Singapore and Osaka in the fourth edition of the EIU’s two-year Safe Cities Index, which for the first time included environmental safety indicators.
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The most successful cities in the ranking
In the last three years, Tokyo, Singapore and Osaka have topped the index, respectively. This year’s victory for Copenhagen does not reflect any dramatic changes in the quality of life in the other cities evaluated, but rather a change of ranking between cities, which has always been placed close to the top.
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In all four editions of the index, six cities were among the top ten – Amsterdam, Melbourne, Tokyo, Toronto, Singapore and Sydney – and were only a few points apart. Copenhagen would probably also belong to this group, but it has only been included since 2019, when it placed 8th.
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In a study of the five pillars of urban security – digital, health, infrastructure, personal and environmental – Copenhagen came first. The city scored 82.4 points out of a possible 100. Toronto is 82.5 points behind this European city. The top five were completed by the cities of Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo, which regularly rank at the top of the rankings. No Czech city was part of the survey.
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Copenhagen – a city of security
EIU interviewed Copenhagen Mayor Lars Weiss and asked him why Copenhagen was such a safe city. Weiss replied that the crime rate in the capital was the lowest in more than a decade.
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In addition, there is great social cohesion and relatively small differences in wealth. “Copenhagen is a mixed city where a cleaning lady and a general manager meet in a local supermarket and their children go to the same school,” Weiss said.
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In connection with the new pillar of the index, the mayor explained that Copenhagen’s goal is to become the world’s first zero-carbon capital by 2025. That is why it is fighting hard to mitigate the effects of climate change, reduce emissions, invest in green energy and adapt the city to future climate change.
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Despite these successes, Weiss acknowledges that further work is needed to further reduce the current crime rate and also to improve the safety of infrastructure for cyclists.
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“Everyone in Copenhagen, whether a child or a senior, a man or a woman, a member of the LGBT or another minority, should feel safe. That is why we are constantly working to increase the security of our citizens, “said Weiss.
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This year, the EIU Safe Cities Index rated 60 cities against 76 safety indicators to get a better idea of safety in cities around the world. Amsterdam, Wellington, Hong Kong, Melbourne and Stockholm were also among the ten safest cities.
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New environmental criteria
The addition of a new pillar of environmental security reflects the increased importance of sustainability issues and measures to address adaptation to climate change following the coronavirus pandemic. Toronto and Copenhagen have performed significantly better under the new pillar of environmental security than any of the top three cities of previous years.
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In addition to health safety, the coronavirus affected all safety indicators, the report noted. “Covid-19 has affected all aspects of urban security,” Pratima Singh, director of the EIU Safe Cities Index, said CNBC on Monday.
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According to the authors of the study, digital security has become a higher priority. Indeed, labor and trade have largely moved to the Internet in the last year, while infrastructure security has had to adapt to changes in travel and public service consumption.
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Elsewhere, personal safety was affected by changing crime patterns during closure. The already mentioned environmental safety came to the fore, as the pandemic served as a strong warning of an unexpected crisis.
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Singh said the findings should remind governments of the need for further investment in security measures – especially in politically and economically unstable countries. The least safe of the 60 cities measured were Lagos, Cairo, Caracas, Karachi and Rangoon.
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“We see a very strong correlation between high-income countries and performance in this index. We see that some higher-income countries are also doing well in infrastructure, while some lower-income countries are increasingly prioritizing infrastructure investment, ”said Singh.
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