Kuala Lumpur Is A Better City Compared To Milan And Shanghai Says Survey

An annual international survey that looks at how key metropolises around the world measured up in terms of how successful, liveable and attractive they are, Kuala Lumpur came in 17th out of 30 cities – not bad, but not great either.

While it’s good news that the nation’s beloved capital moved up the overall rankings – from last year’s 18th to 17th – and even outperformed other well-established urban hubs like Beijing, Moscow and Rio de Janeiro, KL’s report card reveals it as an average city at best.

Most worrying is KL’s ranking for “sustainability and the natural environment” – the city placed a dismal 27th. Two other indicators where KL came in the bottom ten are “intellectual and capital innovation” and “health, safety and security”.

In the latest and sixth edition of the survey published via PWC’s website on May 20 as a free PDF download, the team looked at the 30 cities on the list and checked their performance against 10 indicators that broadly cover the areas of technology and infrastructure, quality of life, and potential for creating economic wealth.

According to PWC, the survey aims “to examine urban life in a way that can help our 30 cities (and through them, cities in general) to understand the patterns and pathways toward building healthy, prosperous communities.”

Unsurprisingly, as lovers of London will no doubt agree, the home of Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and Will and Kate, claimed the top spot in the survey’s overall rankings for the first time since it began in 2007.

Those competitors include last year’s top-ranked city, New York, which dropped to 2nd place.

Singapore made an impressive leap up the list, from last year’s 7th to 3rd, with the island state’s “transportation and infrastructure” and “ease of doing business” scoring highest