European Commission Report: Tirana, one of the worst cities to live on, what about Pristina?

Tirana ranks in the top 10 cities for the pleasure of living, where only 66 percent of respondents have responded positively. The Albanian capital is at the bottom of the list with Istanbul, Athens and Palermo.

“Cities in the Western Balkans and Turkey have the lowest percentages (65% and 74%, respectively), while those in the EFTA countries and in the United Kingdom have the highest percentages (87%)”, the report says.

Survey results in residents' perception of the level of life for various social groups, such as children's families, elderly people, immigrants and the LGBTQ community.

The Albanian capital wasted all these groupings compared to the EU cities, ranking in place of the previous quality of life for families with small children, and also for the LGBTQ community, has left only one city in Turkey behind.

According to the report, many issues related to the quality of life such as housing costs, clean air, cultural life, transportation, employment opportunities, security, etc. depend on where one lives, and that is why the place where people live affects the quality of their lives.

People were asked about the pleasure of living with a number of features of city life, such as inclusion, loneliness, employment, security, housing, environment, transportation, culture, city services, and corruption.

Switzerland's Zurich is the best city to live by the survey of about 97% of residents content with living in this city, followed by Copenhagen, Denmark and Groningen, Holland.

The poll was conducted by the IPSOS at the request of the European Commission's Directorate General for Regional Policy and Urbane between January and April 2023. It includes cities in the European Union member states and cities in Albania, Iceland, Montenegro, Norway, Northern Macedonia, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Alice Ferreira, Comission Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, in the introduction of the report, praises the positive perception of the quality of life in the cities of EU countries, where 9 out of 10 people are satisfied with living in their cities.

But she adds that “has yet to do” in increasing quality of life and that, “there is still a north/south gap, with the lowest satisfaction reported in the South, and especially in polling cities outside the EU”.

It lists three key factors affecting this perception, such as employment opportunities, public services starting with transportation, scolat, hospitals, etc., and the population number, as small cities appear best on the list.