Recent analysis by online home rental company Spotahome has revealed, Norway’s capital, Oslo (6.61) is the second healthiest city out of 89 global cities.
Spotahome has standardised the latest city and country-level data available for key health categories including average gym rating, life expectancy at birth, adult obesity, work-life balance and air and water quality to rank each city out of ten for overall health.
Of the global cities analysed, the Netherlands, Norway and Germany have the top five healthiest: Amsterdam (6.97), Oslo (6.61), Munich (6.60), Rotterdam (6.60) and Berlin (6.52).
Eight of the top ten healthiest cities are in Europe, with Perth (6.30) and Adelaide (6.31) representing the only competition from the rest of the world.
Oslo scores highly in green space (9.36) work-life balance (9.1), life expectancy (8.42) and air and water quality (8.5).
Surprisingly, Oslo and Helsinki are the only Scandinavian countries to rank in the top 10 healthiest cities, despite them dominating the top 10 list of the happiest places to live, according to the report.
At the other end of the table, Casablanca (3.25), Istanbul (3.46), Shanghai (3.53), SĂŁo Paulo (3.66) and Mexico City (3.73) are the five least healthy cities, all scoring poorly for air and water quality, green spaces and life expectancy.
| # | Top 10 healthiest cities | Score | Bottom 10 healthiest cities | Score |
| 1 | Amsterdam, Netherlands | 6.97 | Casablanca, Morocco | 3.25 |
| 2 | Oslo, Norway | 6.61 | Istanbul, Turkey | 3.46 |
| 3 | Munich, Germany | 6.60 | Shanghai, China | 3.53 |
| 4 | Rotterdam, Netherlands | 6.60 | SĂŁo Paulo, Brazil | 3.66 |
| 5 | Berlin, Germany | 6.52 | Mexico City, Mexico | 3.73 |
| 6 | Tallinn, Estonia | 6.36 | Bogotá, Columbia | 3.75 |
| 7 | Vienna, Austria | 6.31 | Izmir, Turkey | 3.79 |
| 8 | Adelaide, Australia | 6.31 | Cairo, Egypt | 3.91 |
| 9 | Helsinki, Finland | 6.30 | Manchester, UK | 4.26 |
| 10 | Perth, Australia | 6.30 | Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia | 4.32 |
The UK also did not perform well, with only London (5.53) ranking above average for healthiness. Manchester (4.26) found itself in the overall bottom ten, with Edinburgh (4.68) and Leeds (4.73) only ranking slightly above it.
Digging deeper into the data, London tops the leader board for electric car charging points (10) which gives its overall score a boost. As of July 2018, the UK had 162,000 plug-in cars, with London councils set to deliver another 2,630 charging points in the next financial year.
Melissa Lyras, Brand and Communications Manager at Spotahome commented on the findings:
“While it’s promising to see strides being taken in cities around the world, particularly in Northern Europe, to improve the health and wellbeing of citizens, it’s surprising to see no city in our index scores higher than 70 percent for overall health.
“The difference between top scoring Amsterdam and lowest scoring Casablanca is smaller than you might expect, at just 3.72 points. It’s evident there is still a lot of work to do for these countries to boost the ongoing, future health and wellbeing of major cities.”
About the study
So what exactly is a healthy city? Spotahome created the healthy city index that scores over 80 locations across the world. Each city is ranked based on how well it performs across 10 distinct, health related factors.
This results in a score between 0 and 10 for each data point, and each country is ranked accordingly based on its overall average score.
The index is created using both city and country-level data. In the instance of country level data, the country score is applied to each city within it. For example, if France has a score of 8.42 for Life Expectancy at Birth, then Paris, Lyon and Marseille all receive 8.42.
Read the detailed comparison from this link.
