The Swiss cities of Geneva and Zurich offer the best quality of life, according to research published by Mercer Consulting in April 2006. Vancouver (Canada) placed third, followed by Vienna (Austria), Auckland (New Zealand) and Düsseldorf (Germany). Baghdad, not surprisingly, is the lowest ranking city in the survey.

The analysis is part of Mercer Consulting's annual “World-wide Quality of Living Survey,” covering more than 350 cities. Each city is based on an evaluation of 39 criteria, including political, social, economic and environmental factors, personal safety and health, education, transport, and other public services. Cities are ranked against New York as the base city, which has an index score of 100.

Almost half the top 30 scoring cities are in Western Europe. In this region, Vienna follows Zurich and Geneva in 4th position with a score of 107.5. Other highly-rated cities include Düsseldorf (107.2), Frankfurt (107.0) and Munich (106.8) in positions 6, 7 and 8 respectively. Athens remains the lowest scoring city in Western Europe, scoring 86.8 at position 79.

Dublin has dropped two places to 24th position, scoring 103.8, mainly due to increased traffic congestion.

As predicted, cities in Eastern Europe, such as Budapest, Ljubljana, Prague, Vilnius, Tallinn and Warsaw, continue to benefit from incremental score increases and are gradually climbing the rankings.

“The standard of living in many Eastern European cities is gradually improving, as the countries that most recently joined the EU attract greater investment,” commented Slagin Parakatil, Senior Researcher at Mercer. “Yet cities such as Dubai may still offer a wider variety of facilities demanded by expatriates – for example, well-connected international airports and better opportunities for recreation and leisure activities – compared to many Eastern European cities.”

Positions for most cities in Europe and the Middle East are generally unchanged, with the exception of Cairo, which has tumbled nine places to position 131 and scores 71.2 due to the political turmoil and terrorist attacks in the city and surrounding area. Baghdad ranks as the least attractive city for a third consecutive year, with a score of 14.5.

“Economies in the developed world tend to be relatively stable overall. Fluctuations in the quality of living in these regions are usually driven by factors such as increased air pollution, crime rates and traffic congestion, or external events like terrorism, disease outbreaks or natural disasters,” said Parakatil.

In Asia, Singapore ranks 34th (score 102.5) followed by Tokyo, Japan’s highest scoring city, at position 35 (score 102.3). Hong Kong’s modern and efficient infrastructure, including its airport (which is considered one of best in the world), has pushed it up from 70th to 68th position with a score of 95.4.

The top-ranking city in China is Shanghai in 103rd place (score 80.1). “Beijing and Shanghai are on the rise and should experience rapid improvements in quality of living in the coming years. This is mainly due to greater international investment driven by the availability and lower cost of labour and manufacturing expertise,” explained Mr. Parakatil.

Though cities in India generally rank lower than their Chinese counterparts, they are also showing signs of development in the region.

“The quality of living in Indian cites such as Mumbai and Bangalore is increasing slowly but steadily, primarily due to India’s improved political relationships with other countries,” said Parakatil. “Investment from multinationals setting up operations in India may prompt further improvements, boost economic growth and contribute to economic stability. In turn, this will encourage the local authorities to focus on improving quality of living standards.”