Copenhagen has been named the world's safest city, overtaking Tokyo for the top spot

• Copenhagen was named the world's safest city by the Economist Intelligence Unit on Monday.
• Toronto came in second and Singapore third, while Sydney and Tokyo took the fourth and fifth spots.
• New York City came in 11th in the EIU's rankings, and Washington, DC, was 14th.

Copenhagen was named the world's safest city by the Economist Intelligence Unit for the first time Monday. The capital of Denmark overtook Tokyo and Singapore - the usual frontrunners of the index.

The EIU has undertaken the survey every two years since 2015. To come up with the rankings, it evaluates 76 indicators across digital, health, infrastructure, environmental, and personal-security sectors.

In 2019, when the survey was most recently completed, Tokyo took the top spot, Singapore placed second, and Osaka, Japan, was ranked third. This year, Copenhagen, Toronto, and Singapore took the top three spots.

The US city considered most safe was New York City, coming in at 11th place, with Washington, DC, placing 14th. San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago also placed in the top 20, coming in at 15th, 18th, and 20th, respectively.

The report's authors noted that while there was jostling among the cities for the top spots, the overall cohort of high-ranking cities remained somewhat static. Overall, cities in the Asia-Pacific region fared the best and those in the Middle East scored the worst.

The report said the COVID-19 pandemic had "changed the whole concept of urban safety," making digital security more important as businesses increasingly move online. The pandemic also shifted the way infrastructure safety was measured as transportation and utility habits changed.

"Greater levels of working from home, increased digitization of commerce, and growing resident demands for more sustainable urban communities with services within walking or cycling reach all have extensive infrastructure implications," the report said, adding that cities would have to keep up with these changes in the next 20 years.

This year's added environmental-security pillar made a major difference in the rankings. Wellington, New Zealand, ranked No. 1 in this category, though it came in seventh overall. Copenhagen and Toronto performed better in the area of environmental security than Tokyo and Singapore. Copenhagen ranked sixth in this category, Toronto came in second, Tokyo ranked 13th, and Singapore ranked 37th.

The environmental-security pillar considers a city's sustainability masterplan, green-economy initiatives, waste management, and air-quality levels, among other things.

The EIU report said there was a strong correlation between income and urban safety, with the top 29 cities belonging to high-income countries.

Yangon, the financial center of Myanmar, placed at the bottom of the list at No. 60, with Karachi, Pakistan; Caracas, Venezuela; Cairo; and Lagos, Nigeria, also in the bottom five.