The best city to live in the Arab World

The best city to live in the Arab World

Saneou Al Hadath releases its annual best cities to live in report—don’t hold your breath on finding out who ranks number 1.

March 13, 2012 3:58 by Eva Fernandes

Kipp’s sister title Saneou Al Hadath releases a report every year listing the best places to live in the Arab World. Some of the factors Saneou Al Hadath take into consideration include business and economy, health, education, telecom and transportation, security and human rights, culture and leisure.

Given the revolutionary and disruptive nature of the Arab Spring, compiling this list meant a rethinking of what it means to live in the Middle East.

So who topped the list? You must be sitting at the edge of your seat right now, but because Kipp’s a bit of a tease we’ll hand it over to Osama Al Renna, Managing Editor of Saneou Al Hadath for a little more on the results:”Gulf countries still lead the first ranks in most of the indicators addressed in the study… The study this year came under exceptional circumstances where the wave of Arab revolutions swept over many countries, which impacted negatively a large number of indicators that we adopt in our study.”

And so without a further ado, here is Saneou Al Hadath’s list of the best cities to live in the Arab World:

1. Dubai

2. Abu Dhabi

3. Doha

4. Manama

5. Muscat

6. Riyadh

7. Jeddah

8. Tunis

9. Kuwait

10. Amman

This is the third time Dubai has taken the top spot on Saneou Al Hadath’s annual city ranking. It was also last year’s best city to live in.

But aside from a total ranking across different sectors and territories, the survey also offers a city ranking according to industries. As you’d expect, Dubai topped most of the categories, including the criteria mentioned above. That is, except for what is arguably the most important category of all: Economy and Business—Doha took the lead on this one.

In terms of different territories within the Middle East, Tunis takes the lead among cities in North Africa, while the study sees Amman as the ‘best city to live in’ within the Levant region.

Saneou Al Hadath’s survey almost closely corroborates the results of the Economic Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) ‘Hot Spots’. The report, which was commissioned by Citi, ranked Dubai and Abu Dhabi as the most competitive cities to live in across the Middle East.

In the EIU survey, Dubai ranked in at #40 and Abu Dhabi came close after at #41. It was New York,that took the prize as the most competitive city in the world, closely followed by London and then Singapore.