Haifa Ranks 187th in Global 'Happiest Cities' Index

The British-based Institute for Quality of Life has released its "Happiest Cities in the World" ranking, which includes Haifa as the sole Israeli representative at 187th place out of 251 cities. The index evaluates cities based on measurable criteria such as income, health, urban amenities, and governance, utilizing approximately 64 different parameters.

The research involved 466 academics globally and analyzed over 3,400 cities. Initially, 25 Israeli cities were considered, with 16 undergoing deeper analysis. Haifa and Jerusalem were the only ones to qualify for the overall ranking due to comprehensive, reliable, and transparent data. However, after further evaluation of urban data quality, only Haifa remained.

Haifa performed well in areas like urban innovation, the percentage of residents with university degrees, foreign language proficiency, elderly home care, employment in creative fields, GDP growth per capita, low youth unemployment, and library density. The city also showed strengths in its representation of the Israeli delegation in the ranking.

Conversely, Haifa was noted for weaknesses including the high cost of higher education relative to wages, large class sizes, a low number of cultural facilities per capita, air pollution, poor recycling rates, a scarcity of businesses per capita, limited parental leave, and a high murder rate per 100,000 residents.

Copenhagen topped the list, followed by Helsinki and Geneva. Other cities in the top ten included Uppsala, Tokyo, Trondheim, Bern, Malmö, Munich, and Aarhus. The ranking aims to provide an objective assessment, excluding subjective resident surveys. Kyiv was symbolically placed last without a score to highlight its situation under Russian attacks.