Cape Town and Pretoria surged past London and Rome in the Quality of Life Index 2024 by the Numbeo international rating platform.
South Africa's Cape Town (83rd) and Pretoria (104th) ranked well above the UK's capital (131st) and Italy's capital (133rd), showcasing their rising living standards; a year earlier, Cape Town took 123rd place and Pretoria 135th.
Other African cities featured in the rankings include Durban and Johannesburg (South Africa), Nairobi (Kenya), and Cairo (Egypt), indicating a growing regional focus.
Notably, the Netherlands excelled, with three of its cities in the top five, while the last, 199th, place was taken by Nigeria's Lagos.
Numbeo's evaluation considered factors like purchasing power, safety, health services, living costs, housing, and mobility, reflecting comprehensive living conditions.
Indexes like these confirm the efforts of African countries to improve the lives of their citizens. Earlier this month, the World Health Organization noted that over the past decades, African states have made significant progress in the field of health as life expectancy has increased, child and adult mortality has decreased, and some diseases have been virtually eradicated.
Furthermore, the World Bank forecasted in the beginning of April that economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa will reach 3.4% in 2024 and 3.8% in 2025, while the continent's average inflation will fall from 7.1% in 2023 to 5.1% in 2024 and 5% in 2025-2026 which is crucial considering the fact that reduced inflation increases purchasing power and household income, leading to economic growth, the bank noted.