The international consulting company Mercer has published its annual quality of living city ranking.
Ashgabat ranks 211 out of 231 cities on the list.
Central Asia neighbours turned out to be neighbours in the rating: Tashkent ranks 203, Bishkek 206 whereas Dushanbe is listed as 215. Almaty ranks a bit higher occupying the 177th place.
Globally, Vienna (Austria) tops the ranking for the 10th year running, closely followed by Zurich (Switzerland), Vancouver (Canada), Munich (Germany) and Auckland (New Zealand).
Khartoum (Sudan), Port au Prince (Haiti), Sana’a (Yemen Arab Republic), Bangui (Central African Republic) are at the bottom of the ranking. Baghdad (Iraq) has been ranked as the worst city.
While compiling the ratings experts took into consideration such factors as political stability, public services and transport, availability of cafes and restaurants, recreation, the quality of education and healthcare and climatic conditions.
Let us recall that in 2013 Ashgabat was listed in the Guinness World Records as having the highest density of marble buildings.
Moreover, the capital of Turkmenistan has other numerous entries in the Guinness World Records such as the complex featuring the largest number of fountains in a public place, the largest architectural star on the building of the television broadcasting centre, the largest indoor Ferris wheel, the largest yurt in the world, a giant sculpture of a horse’s head above the Olympic stadium, and many others.
President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov exercises control over urban development of Ashgabat by inspecting the capital from a helicopter or patrolling the streets and construction sites by bicycle or riding a horse.