A Multivariate Statistical Study of Dhaka’s Quality of Life Based on Residents’ Perception

Abstract

Owing to rapid and uncontrolled urbanization and intense centralization, Dhaka has been experiencing extreme urban environmental and social problems in residents’ everyday lives. The purpose of the study is to understand the perception of the residents of Dhaka city and determine the quality of life from the perception of its citizens. Individual responses from 224 respondents have been evaluated qualitatively using the Likert scale method. The variables or as called dimensions influencing the livability of urban environment are studied under 8 domains- environment quality, social life quality, quality of health and education economic satisfaction, quality of transport and mobility, recreational quality, quality of utility services, governance quality. The subjective evaluation of QoL (Quality of Life) in Dhaka city has come out almost homogenous, respondents graded almost all the services to be Poor to Very Poor; especially negative feedback and judgments for almost all dimensions were observed among environment, utility service, transportation and government service relates issues. While analyzing using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), the variables had a higher correlation among themselves meaning maximum proportion of respondents had similar responses regarding these. These results indicate that Dhaka is far away from being a livable city where the quality of life is concerned despite having all modern amenities for the residents.