After Stockholm, Mumbai is most liveable city: Survey

Coimbatore: Mumbai has emerged as the second-most liveable city in the world, according to an Ericsson ConsumerLab survey. The liveability factor has been tied to connectivity. Stockholm topped the list.

India's business capital has in the survey outranked cities such as New York, London and Los Angeles.

The 30-minute online survey (with 1,500 participants per city) was carried out in Cairo, Johannesburg, Mumbai, Stockholm, Beijing, Moscow, Sao Paulo, Tokyo, Seoul, London, Los Angeles, New York and Hong Kong.

“Urbanization is a global mega-trend. City populations grow by 7500 people per hour, and people are clearly feeling some stress from overcrowding. We also saw how with the use of ICT, (Information and Communication Technology) people in cities alleviated such feelings and got on with city life,” said the Head of Research at Ericsson ConsumerLab, Mr Michael Bjorn.

The survey found that the average commute time in the 13 cities was two hours, twenty minutes per day.

“People are more relaxed when they know how long their commute will take, as this enables them to use their time more efficiently. Smart-phones are becoming an invaluable tool on the daily commute,' said Mr Bjorn.

“Big cities are hotbeds for creativity, bringing together people from different walks of life. The sheer number of social opportunities is what makes life alluring in such cities,” he said.

Some issues
City dwellers seemed most satisfied with the abundance of restaurants, pubs, cafes, shopping malls, supermarkets and entertainment facilities, apart from mobile network and water distribution.

Traffic and parking, air quality, overall cleanliness and the manner of communication by authorities frustrated city dwellers the most, according to the survey.

The findings further revealed that women in Mumbai and Tokyo were slightly happier living in cities than men; and young people were found happier than the old in Cairo and Seoul. This was in contrast to Mumbai, Stockholm and Tokyo, where the aged ones were most content.