{"id":7837,"date":"2025-07-17T14:43:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T14:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/?p=7837"},"modified":"2025-07-17T14:43:02","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T14:43:02","slug":"global-livability-index-ranks-zimbabwe-among-worlds-toughest-places-to-live-sparks-social-media-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/?p=7837","title":{"rendered":"Global Livability Index Ranks Zimbabwe Among World&#8217;s Toughest Places to Live, Sparks Social Media Backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><br>Zim GBC News Reporter<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>HARARE \u2013 Nigeria and Zimbabwe have been ranked among the world\u2019s ten most challenging countries to live in, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit\u2019s (EIU) 2025 Global Livability Index. The report evaluates 173 cities across five critical categories: stability, healthcare, culture\/environment, education, and infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>African cities faced significant hurdles, with the report citing economic crises, security concerns, underfunded healthcare, and deteriorating education systems as key factors dragging down scores. Zimbabwean urban centers scored poorly in stability (linked to civil unrest and crime) and infrastructure (covering transport, housing, and utilities).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Methodology Under Scrutiny<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The index uses 30+ qualitative and quantitative indicators, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\ud83d\udcc9 Stability: Terror threat, violent crime, and conflict risk<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u2695\ufe0f Healthcare: Availability\/quality of private and public care<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\ud83c\udf0d Culture\/Environment: Climate vulnerability, censorship, and recreational access<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\ud83c\udf93 Education: Public school quality and affordability<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\ud83d\udea7 Infrastructure: Public transit, energy reliability, and telecommunications<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Zimbabweans Reject &#8220;War Zone&#8221; Comparison<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ranking ignited fierce social media criticism, with many Zimbabweans disputing the methodology after the report placed the country near conflict zones like Ukraine:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;These indices cannot be trusted. How can Zim be placed in the same bracket as Ukraine, a country bombarded with Russian hypersonic missiles?&#8221;<br>\u2013 @TrevosTshuma<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Ratings fall short of credibility. Zimbabwe isn\u2019t at war, yet ranked alongside nations in active conflict.&#8221;<br>\u2013 @redbakkie13<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;How is Zimbabwe\u2019s stability (40\/100) equal to Ukraine\u2019s? This is rubbish.&#8221;<br>\u2013 @bbxhawk<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The EIU has not publicly responded to the criticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Zim GBC News\u00a92025<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zim GBC News Reporter HARARE \u2013 Nigeria and Zimbabwe have been ranked among the world\u2019s ten most challenging countries to live in, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit\u2019s (EIU) 2025&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7839,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7837\/revisions\/7839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}