People wait to commute as an overloaded bus approaches on a street after office hours during Ramadan in Dhaka. REUTERS/Andrew Biraj The Economist Intelligence Unit conducted a livability survey to determine which cities around the world "provide the best or worst living conditions."

Cities with major conflicts tended to score the lowest. Military and political conflicts weigh heavily on livability because they adversely affect many other factors as well: infrastructure is destroyed; hospitals are supersaturated with the wounded and dead; and economic productivity drops.

The survey notes that it is "designed to address a range of cities or business centers that people might want to live in or visit," and consequently, it excluded hotspots like Kabul, Afghanistan, and Baghdad.