Despite efforts  by Lagos government to modernize Lagos, the city is still ranked one of the worst in the world.

By Emmanuel Ogala

Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria, is one of the worst cities to live on earth, providing its residents with the worst living conditions, an international survey has found.

In the latest Livability Ranking and Overview survey, done by The Economist Intelligence Unit, only two major cities worldwide are worse to live in than Lagos: Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, the overall worst; and Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

In the beginning, the livability survey was initiated to test whether human resource departments of organisations needed to assign hardship allowance as part of expatriate relocation packages.

But over time, the survey has evolved, becoming one of the most reliable means of benchmarking the cities of the world.

The survey usually ranks 140 major cities of the world using factors such as political and social stability, crime, education, and access to health care.

Being the country’s most cosmopolitan city, Lagos is the only one considered for ranking from Nigeria

Lagos was ranked 138th, of the 140 cities surveyed. The result also portrayed the city as the worst place to live in Africa.

Even cities that have undergone wars and tumultuous political crisis fared better than Nigeria’s commercial capital. Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire was in the 131st position; Doula, Cameroon (133); Tripoli, Libya (134); and Harare, Zimbabwe (137).

Although the Lagos state government has in the past years invested enormous resources and political will on developing infrastructure in the state, the survey described the quality of Lagos’ infrastructure as “intolerable, undesirable and uncomfortable.”

Aderemi Ibirogba, Lagos State Commissioner for Information, could not be reached for comments on the ranking. His phones were switched off Wednesday afternoon while voice and text messages were yet to be responded to.

The best cities to live in, according to the survey, are Melbourne, Australia; and Vienna, Austria, respectively.

They are followed by Vancouver, Toronto, and Calgary; all in Canada. Adelaide and Sydney, both Australian cities are the 6th and 7th most livable places.

Helsinki, Finland is 8th, just before Perth, another Australian city. Auckland, New Zealand, is 10th.

According to the survey, of the worst 10 cities to live in, six are in Africa.

Have you lived in at least two of the cities polled? Share your view of the result in the comment box below.