The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has published its 2021 Safe Cities Index, which ranks 60 major global cities across 76 indicators based on digital, health, infrastructure, environmental and personal security.
Lagos ranked last this year on Infrastructure Security with a score of 32.4 out of 100.
Africa’s largest mega-city however ranked 56 out of 60 in the overall score, managing to beat out only Yangon, Karachi, Caracas and Cairo.
Inputs and Outputs the EIU used to measure infrastructure security include: Enforcement of transport safety, Pedestrian friendliness, Disaster management / business continuity plan, Water infrastructure, Road traffic deaths.
Others are Transport infrastructure such as: Air transport facilities, Road network and Rail network, Power network, Institutional capacity and access to resources, Percentage living in slums and Percentage of the homeless population.
The indicators for the broader ranking fall into five pillars: personal, infrastructure, health, digital and environmental security.
Within each of these, the relevant indicators are grouped into inputs of safety – normally policies or resources dedicated to some aspect of security – and outputs, which are as diverse as air pollution levels and crime rates.
According to the report, “outputs measure how safe a city currently is, while the inputs indicate which cities are doing the right things to enhance safety.”
Lagos also faired fairly poorly in the broader rankings coming in at 50 out of 60 for digital security, 59 out of 60 for health security, and 59 out of 60 for personal security.
The mega city scored its highest in environmental security with a ranking of 39 out of 60 cities.
The data is sobering and should give a pause for thought to the city’s Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu who has a lot of work to do according to the report.
Download report HERE.