Cairo and Alexandria were among the top 10 African cities for quality of life, according to a recent Swiss survey published this week.
The survey took into consideration 100 of the continent’s capitals and major urban centers and based its quality of life criteria on social and living conditions, infrastructure, governance and environment.
The Mediterranean city of Alexandria ranked third and Egypt's capital, Cairo, scored seventh for quality of life, according to the survey.
The Moroccan city of Marrakesh clinched the top ranking with three other Moroccan cities — Casablanca, Rabat and Fez — in the top 10. South Africa's Johannesburg scored second place in the ranking. The Mauritius capital Port Louis came fourth, while Tunis ranked sixth in the study directed by the Swiss urban sociologist, Jerome Chenal.
Nairobi and Abidjan, magnets for expatriates, scored only 27th and 39th, respectively.
The survey was conducted by Swiss research body Communaute d’Etudes pour l’Amenagement du Territoire at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL).
“These are cities that are not huge … where real work has been done to improve infrastructure, people’s quality of life [and] housing in a stable political context,” EPFL said.
Rankings for Africa were only conducted for investors and expatriates, Chenal told Afrique Mediterranee Business, the Paris-based magazine that commissioned the study. "We never asked how people lived, whether young or old, rich or poor," he added.
EPFL claimed it will conduct the study each year in the hope of standardizing data on African cities.
