Glasgow 'healthiest' UK city
Monday, 02 Apr 2007 00:01
Glasgow is the 'healthiest' UK city
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Glasgow is the healthiest UK city, according to new research.
The Scottish city was deemed to have the best health and sanitation rankings in the country in a worldwide quality of living survey conducted by business consultancy Mercer.
Ranked 48th out of a total of 215 cities for factors such as the quality and availability of its medical supplies and the efficiency of its sewage systems, Glasgow was deemed to be a healthier place to live than either London or Birmingham, which were ranked in 63rd and 66th place respectively.
The study was conducted to help companies formulate remuneration packages for employees dispatched to different locations abroad.
It also took into account factors such as levels of air pollution and infectious diseases and how suitable local water sources were to drink in categorising cities according to overall levels of health and sanitation.
Measured against the benchmark city of New York, four of the world's top five cities for health and sanitation were also found to be located within North America, with the Canadian city of Calgary topping the list, closely followed by Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii.
In third place, Helsinki in Finland was the only European location to be named as one of the top five healthiest and most sanitised cities in the world, although almost half of the cities within the top 30 were located within western Europe.
In contrast most eastern European countries, except for Prague, received low scores, with Baku in the former soviet state of Azerbaijan ranked bottom for overall health and sanitation levels.
The Bangladeshi city of Dhaka was also ranked low in the poll, as was Antananarivo in Madagascar.
Commenting on the research, Mercer senior researcher Slagin Parakatil said: "Poor countries often lack adequate medical infrastructure including hospitals and health networks.
"Furthermore, provision of care is hampered by poor sanitation and unsafe water facilities in many areas."
In terms of overall quality of living, as measured by a range of political, social, economic and environmental factors, the Swiss city of Zurich was deemed by the study to be the best place to live, while London was ranked as the UK's top city.