Abu Dhabi among world’s ‘safest cities’

The UAE capital is the safest city in the Middle East and Africa, and the 25th safest in the world, according to a report released on Wednesday.

A report says the capital is the safest city in the Middle East and Africa and one of the safest in the world. Silvia Razgova / The National

ABU DHABI // The capital is the safest city in the Middle East and Africa, and the 25th safest in the world, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Safe Cities Index 2015 has Abu Dhabi ranked halfway in the list of the 50 cities evaluated.

Tokyo, the world’s most populous city, came out on top, followed by Singapore and Osaka. Jakarta completes the list at number 50.

Abu Dhabi was the only regional city to make it to the top half of the overall list, with GCC neighbours Doha in 29th, Kuwait City 36th, and Riyadh 46th.

Cities were ranked through a scoring system spread across four categories; digital security, health security, infrastructure safety, and personal safety. In terms of personal safety – evaluated in terms of prevalence of violent crime, the role of police, and how secure residents are from theft and violence – Abu Dhabi was ranked 32nd, behind Doha at 14th.

The “perception” of safety among city dwellers was also used to compile the rankings, and the report noted Abu Dhabi residents perceived their city to be safer than the overall scoring indicated.

According to their own perceptions, residents had the city ranked 2nd – 23 places above the city’s overall ranking.

The perception data was taken from online statistics database numbeo.com

“I do feel safe,” said Omar Mohammed, 14, who lives in Abu Dhabi. “There are cameras everywhere, and the police are really trustworthy. They aren’t biased. In some countries they are racist, not here.”

“I’m safe here, It’s a good city,” said Bishar Ali, a 33-year old Pakistani who has lived and worked in Abu Dhabi for 16 years.

However, citizens in the US were said to have a tendency to feel less safe than they should, according to their cities’ positions in the index.

“The challenge for city leaders is to translate progress on safety into changing public perceptions,” the report states.

In the infrastructure safety and digital security categories, Abu Dhabi was ranked ninth and 10th.

Abu Dhabi was noted as an exception in the region by the report’s authors, who said wealth and an abundance of resources did not guarantee a safe environment for residents. Four of the five Middle East cities in the top 50 were all considered “high income” with GDP per capita earnings above Dh180,000.

The index’s 50 cities were selected based on factors such as their prominence in the region and the availability of data.

Each of the four categories included up to eight sub-indicators, divided between “inputs” such as policy and government spending, and “outputs”, such as pedestrian deaths, air quality, and corruption.

Using the indicators, scores between zero and 100 were given to create the rankings.

Research was supplemented with the input of a range of global leaders in education, government and the private sector, the report said.