by NR INDRAN / INT

Chandigarh, Bangalore and Pune have emerged as the threemost desirable cities (ranked in descending order) to live, reveals a survey by99acres.com, India’s no. 1 real estate portal and YouGov, an international internet-based market research firm.

An in-depth study of the city ratings revealed some interestinginsights on what citizens feel. Among the metros,only Bangalore features among the top three desirable cities across mostmetrics.

Inthis survey on ‘Mostand Least desirable cities to live in India’, Chandigarhwith a mean rating of 4.43 (on a scale of1 to 5) emerged on top of the list across most parametersthat were

taken into considerationwhile arriving at the overall desirability index. It was a preferred city foreducation, health, living conditions, safety, human rights,

and recreation andto some extent for financial aspects, career opportunities and Salary. Each of these elements plays a crucial role either directly orindirectly in shaping the overall quality of life.

Barring career opportunities and salaries where Bangalore, Mumbaiand Delhi are top rated cities, Chandigarh has scored top ranks in allthe other parameters. On the contrary, Varanasi, Agra, Patna, Kanpur and Meerutperformed poorly across most of the parameters. Meerut, the lowest rated city scored only 2.8.

Delhi along with Patna, Kanpur and Meerut emerged as one of themost unsafe city in the country.  Chandigarh, Vadodara and Shimla  emerged asthe safest cities in the country.

Delhi appears in the top five rankings in Education,Health and Career prospects and Mumbai features in the top five list for thequality of Education, Recreation and Career prospects. Interestingly, Shimlahas been rated among the top three cities in human and civil rights and safetyparameters. Meerut, Varanasi, Agra and Patna have been consistently rated witha low score across all parameters. *(Please refer to the attached report forother details).

When we asked respondents about their opinion on which city inIndia has the most attractive citizens then 24% of them said Mumbai, 15% saidBangalore and 14% said Delhi. On the contrary, 11% respondents have said thatPatna has the least attractive citizens.

Methodology: Fieldwork wasconducted online between 23rd August & 28th September2011 by YouGov. Respondents were drawn from 99acres.com’s database andthe total achieved sample was 6,161. The sample is broadly representative ofthe online population of India.

Respondents were only asked to rate a particular city on aparticular rating (excluding attractiveness of citizen), if they were residentsor recent visitors to that particular city.

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