This is the world's safest city. What can we learn from it?

Urban safety has become a paramount priority for communities of all sizes over the last few years. During the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have also found governments shifting their attention towards making cities safer than ever.

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Safe Cities Index uses five broad pillars (which cover a total of 76 indicators) to measure urban safety: personal, health, infrastructure, digital and environmental security. While Tokyo, Singapore and Osaka have topped this Index of 60 cities since its launch in 2015, the 2021 edition crowned Copenhagen as leader, with Toronto following very closely in second place. A strong part of this unprecedented result is Copenhagen’s own score in the brand new environmental security pillar, an update to the Index’s framework which aims to reflect the dynamic nature of the urban safety landscape, with a special focus on the impact of the pandemic.

The introduction of this new pillar for 2021 is also testimony to the increased importance of sustainability issues and climate adaptation measures which, along with Covid-19, have profoundly challenged the traditional concept of urban safety. Much of this priority, strongly linked with the health security factor, has been assigned not just by city officials, but by residents themselves.

When it comes to environmental sustainability in particular, the index looks at how cities make efforts to move “away from purely after-the-fact response (grow now and green later) to include system-wide preparedness to climate risks”, with some of the indicators looking at the likes of urban tree cover or the rate of water stress in cities. In addition to this, with more work and commerce having moved online since March of last year, digital security has become another important priority when measuring the long-term preparedness of a city.

In terms of more traditional indicators, other key factors that make Copenhagen such a safe city are its low crime rate (currently at its lowest level ever), as well as its great social cohesion and narrow wealth gap, which translate into heightened security for citizens. The city has, essentially, proven itself in setting up efficient working models on how cities can achieve their urban goals, become better, safer, and more advanced.

Are you wondering how your own community compares to Copenhagen, or any of the 60 cities ranked in the 2021 Index? Luckily, the report’s site features a handy Urban Safety Benchmarking Tool, which you can use to compare your own city by answering 12 questions covering various indicators within the five core pillars mentioned above. You can also check out the Safe Cities Index 2021 in more detail via the white paper, here.

For me, the key takeaway from the report is right at the beginning of it: system-wide preparedness versus after-the-fact response. Let’s ensure we take these lessons on board to drive our own cities forward into a brighter future for all.