Home Insider Insider Review Yangon or Second Most Dangerous Place to Call Home

Yangon or Second Most Dangerous Place to Call Home

Yangon ranked as second most unsafe city in the safe cities index 2017 with overall score 46.47 out of 100. The 2017 index, produced by The Economist Intelligence Unit, was based on 49 indicators covering the four categories of security; digital, health, infrastructure and physical. It has been expanded to cover 60 cities, up from 50 in 2015 index.

According to the report, the most dangerous cities were all located in South and South East Asia, the Middle East or Africa, with Karachi in Pakistan is the most dangerous place to call home using the index’s criteria. It was followed by Yangon in Myanmar, Dhaka in Bangladesh, Jakarta in Indonesia and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

Digital security

Out of 60th place, Yangon ranked bottom 57th above Dahka, Manila and Jakarta respectively. Yangon earned a score of 39.07 in the digital security category. In the index, four of the five cites at the bottom of this category—Ho Chi Minh City, Yangon, Dhaka and Manila—are low-income cities. These cities often lack technology skills and competing challenges such as tackling infectious diseases and poverty can push cyber security lower on the list of priorities.

Technology allows developing countries to leapfrog traditional steps on the development path. However cities in developing countries are generally more exposed to cyber threats because of the rate at which they have adopted digital technology.
Heath Security

In the health security category, the city scored 45.79 out of 100 and ranked 58th except for Dhaka and Karachi. Health security encompasses adequate access to healthcare whether that is provision of emergency services and hospitals or the operation of social care services. However, cities also need to deliver a healthy urban environment in the form of traffic management schemes, the provision of green spaces and other measures.

While many aspects of health provision come at a price, income levels are not always the driving force behind the extent to which cities keep their residents healthy. Of the top ten performing cities in the health security category, only two (Tokyo and Zurich) are high-income cities.

Infrastructure Security

In infrastructure security category, Yangon earned a score of 48.59 and ranked again 58th place above Dhaka and Karachi.

In general, affluence appears to drive infrastructure security. The top ten in this category of the index (Singapore, Madrid, Barcelona, Stockholm, Wellington, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Sydney and Zurich) are either high- or upper middle income cities.

Meanwhile, the lowest part of the list is dominated by lower-income cities—Mumbai, Delhi, Manila, Yangon, Karachi and Dhaka all feature in the bottom ten in this category.

Developing countries like Yangon, massive amounts of investment will be required to upgrade old infrastructure. However, even when sufficient funds are spent on urban infrastructure, its resilience depends on the quality of operations In developing countries, the rapid expansion of urban populations is also putting pressure on infrastructure, particularly as young people leave rural areas and head for the city. Of the world’s 47 fastest-growing cities, six are in Africa and 40 in Asia (with 20 in China). Slums and other unplanned urban developments are expanding, often in areas that lack basic services such as water and sanitation systems. Climate change is presenting greater threats to urban infrastructure and nature itself can be harnessed in adapting to these threats. Yangon ranked the 15th highest number of deaths from natural disasters per year among the 60 cities.

Personal Security

Asia is home to some of the world’s safest cities when it comes to personal security. Five of the top-performing cities in this category— Singapore, Osaka, Tokyo, Taipei and Hong Kong— are Asian, two of them in Japan. But the city scored 52.43 and ranked 57th only above than Ho Chi Minh City, Caracas, and Karachi.

Yangon had the 17th highest number of injuries and casualties caused by terror attacks between 2007 and 2016, and the city’s traffic is getting worse. Year-end death tolls get higher every year.

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