Singapore, Bangalore beat Hong Kong in Deutsche Bank’s worldwide quality-of-life poll. Beijing is in second-last position
- Tokyo and Seoul too ahead of city in ‘Mapping the World’s Prices 2019’ survey
- Hong Kong better than Tokyo, Singapore for start-ups, says online gaming developer
Hong Kong has been ranked 44th out of 56 cities for its quality of life, in a survey released by Deutsche Bank on Monday. It ranked behind Asian peers Tokyo (14), Singapore (23), Seoul (29) and Bangalore (33) in the “Mapping the World’s Prices 2019” poll, but was ahead of Beijing, which came in at 55th, just ahead of Lagos in Nigeria.
In its eighth year, the survey has ranked cities on the basis of prices of goods and services to shine a light on incomes and purchasing power, safety, health care, housing affordability, traffic, pollution and the climate. The poll used internet surveys and secondary sources.
“There are 21 megacities out of the 56 in our quality-of-life sample and, all bar Tokyo, are in the bottom half on a quality-of-life basis, with the bottom 12 all being developing country megacities, which are also generally near the bottom in salaries,” Deutsche Bank said.
“This exercise looks at average salaries, so megacities will have more people on much higher salaries … but the average worker struggles for income after rent and quality-of-life relative to smaller global cities. Aspiration must keep them going,” the bank added.
Hong Kong ranked higher than other Asian cities, including Shanghai, Jakarta, Dhaka, Manila and Beijing.
Bangalore's ranking improved the most in Asia, with the city climbing four places in 2019 year on year. Singapore rose three places, but Tokyo, Hong Kong and Beijing all fell one place during last year.