Quality of Living Global City Rankings 2009

Mercer has just published the results of their annual Quality of Living global city rankings. Once again Europe’s cities dominate the world’s top 10 with Vienna rated with the best quality of living worldwide, moving up one place in the rankings following improvements in Austria’s political and social environment. The rest of the top 10 for Europe are dominated by German and Swiss cities, most of them retaining last year’s ranking and scores. Zurich, in second place, is followed by Geneva (3), Dusseldorf (6), Munich (7), Frankfurt (8) and Bern (9).
 
Other highlights

Dublin ranks 25th of 215 (in top 12%) in the Mercer 2009 Quality of Living Global City rankings, ahead of several major cities including Paris (33rd), London (38th), and Barcelona (42nd). 

Auckland (4) in New Zealand retains its position as the highest ranking city for quality of living in the region. Sydney in Australia follows at 10 and Wellington in New Zealand at 12

Dubai (77) in the United Arab Emirates and Port Louis in Mauritius (82) are the region’s cities with the best quality of living

Cape Town in South Africa, previously the city in the region with the best quality of living, has dropped substantially in this year's ratings (from 80 to 87 in 2009). This move follows violent riots in South Africa's main cities in 2008.

Mercer’s Quality of Living ranking covers 215 cities and is conducted to help governments and major companies place employees on international assignments.  Living conditions are analysed according to 39 factors, grouped in 10 categories:

• Political and social environment
• Economic environment
• Socio-cultural environment
• Health and sanitation
• Schools and education
• Public services and transportation
• Recreation
• Consumer goods
• Housing
• Natural environment;

The scores attributed to each factor allow for city-to-city comparisons to be made. The result is a Quality of Living Index which compares the relative differences between any two locations.

The full rankings are available from Mercer’s website

Picture from Creative commons: Flickr: Talayehs