The dirtiest cities in the world were first rated by Mercer, influential international consulting agency, in 2007. Their research was based on water and air quality, life expectancy, mortality and healthcare accessability.
New York was taken as a golden standard: this city received one hundred points. But it doesn't necessarily mean that the Big Apple is the cleanest city in the world. Rating is opened by Canadian Calgary with 131.7 points. Third place was given to Helsinki, the capital of Finland and the only European city in the leaderboard. Honolulu and Minneapolis are also among the leaders, along with Ottawa, the capital of Canada.
Calgary is the cleanest and safest place in the world!
Mercer specialists studied 215 cities all around the world. The dirtiest of them didn't even make it to 50 points. Most of 25 filthiest cities in the world are situated in developing countries of Africa and South-Eastern Asia. However, NIS countries have made it to the anti-leaderboard as well. Moscow was rated 14th for its polluted atmosphere, Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan, is #9 due to polluted air and poor healthcare. Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, tops the antirating. Regardless of vast construction of designer skyscrapers the New Dubai faces serious environmental issues because of careless and unconcerned extraction of hydrocarbons.
Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, is the most polluted city in the world due to crude oil and natural gas extraction.
Unfortunately, none of these barely inhabitable cities showed any improvement tendency lately. For instance, Haiti (Port-au-Prince is #4) still deals with morbid water issues after 2011 earthquake. Moscow residents suffered from suffocating smog during summer 2010. Outbreaks of cholera still terrorize Iraqi capital residents from time to time (Baghdad was #8 in this rating).
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