You might not think so if you live there – especially with daily COVID counts and other mainstays of the regular news cycle – but through the eyes of a stranger, Hogtown is the second safest city in the world in 2021.
The lofty ranking comes courtesy of the fourth bi-annual report of the prestigious Economist Intelligence Unit’s “Safe Cities Index,” which previously listed Canada’s biggest city fourth in 2017, sixth in 2019 and eighth in 2015.
Also moving up the ladder was this year’s first-time winner, Copehagen, Denmark.
The Safe Cities Index covers 60 major cities worldwide and with 76 indicators related to different aspects of urban safety, grouped into five overall pillars: personal, health, infrastructure, digital, and – new this year – environmental security.
The publishers of the report acknowledge the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic – “the first global pandemic to strike humanity since we became a predominantly urban species.”
“This,” says the report, “has enhanced the disease’s opportunities to spread, but also comes at a time when healthcare systems have a greater capacity to respond. In such circumstances, health is an obvious place to begin a discussion of urban security in 2021.”
It adds: “Stopping there, though, would miss most of the picture… COVID-19 has changed the whole concept of urban safety.” Such as:
• Digital security is now an even higher priority as more work and commerce have moved online
• Those responsible for infrastructure safety have to adjust to dramatic changes in travel patterns and where residents consume utilities
• Agencies responsible for personal security need to address a large, lockdown-driven shift in crime patterns; and
• The priority that urban residents and officials assign to environmental security has risen markedly as COVID-19 serves as a stark warning of unexpected crises.
As such, the report notes that this year, Copenhagen and Toronto have replaced top-of-the-table regulars Tokyo and Singapore, which have finished in that order in each previous index listing. Other perennial top 10 cities include Amsterdam, Melbourne, Sydney, and, until this year, Osaka, Japan.
Copenhagen edged out Toronto by just .2 points with a total of 82.4 out of 100.
“This change reflects not a tectonic shift, but more a reordering among cities that have always come close to the top,” says the report.
Beyond the top two, the rest of this year’s top 10 included: Singapore; Sydney; Tokyo; Amsterdam; Wellington, NZ; Hong Kong/Melbourne, Australia (tie); and Stockholm, Sweden.
The bottom five (56-60) were Lagos, Nigeria; Cairo, Egypt; Caracas, Venezuela; Karachi, Pakistan; and Yangon, Myanmar.