AKIPRESS.COM - Every year, Mercer, one of the world's largest HR consultancy firms, releases its Quality of Living Index, which looks at the cities that provide the best quality of life, reports The Independent.

According to this year's study, Tashkent, Ashgabat, Bishkek and Dushanbe are among the cities in the world with low standards of living.

Looking at 450 cities across the world, Mercer takes into account political and social environment, the economic environment, the socio-cultural environment, the medical and health considerations, schools and education, the public services and transportation, recreation, consumer goods, housing, natural environment to judge the cities.

Tashkent, the capital in the central Asia country, has become a hotbed for terrorism over the last year. In 2015, the US embassy in Tashkent was attacked for the first time in 11 years and the government is trying to counteract growth in Islamic extremism.

Ashgabat is largely controlled by the government, mainly through a large percentage of employment coming from state-owned enterprises. Unfortunately, the city suffers from chronic water shortages due to state mismanagement, which is crippling for citizens where temperatures soared as high as 47.2 degrees Celsius (116.96 F) in 2015.

Poverty is high in the economic centre of Kyrgyzstan. Meanwhile, the government is battling continual attacks from members of Islamic State — also known as ISIS and Daesh.

Poverty and energy shortages are a huge issue for Dushanbe and country as a whole. The World Bank also warns that doing business there is difficult due to the inadequate infrastructure, according to the report.