The world’s best cities are still in Switzerland
A report by Mercer Consulting
3 April 2007:
Zurich and Geneva are the best cities in the world as far as quality of live is concerned, says Mercer Consulting in a survey published in April 2007. Vancouver (Canada) is placed third, followed by Vienna (Austria), Auckland (New Zealand), Düsseldorf (Germany) and Frankfurt (Germany). Paris, London and Madrid are in the lower half of the top-50 table. Overall, Baghdad is not surprisingly the lowest ranking city in the survey.
EIU names Vancouver, Melbourne and Vienna as 'best' cities in the world
Other cities in Europe and Australia continue to dominate the top end of the rankings for overall quality of living. In fact, there are very few changes in the top half of the 2007 table. Auckland and Düsseldorf share joint fifth place and score 107.3 points. Frankfurt and Munich follow with scores of 107.1 and 106.9 respectively. Bern and Sydney both score 106.5 points and share joint 9th place. However, Paris is only ranked 33rd, with London in 39th place. Madrid improved from 45th, in 2006, to 42nd place in 2007. Oslo gains five places at the expense of Dublin, which drops to 27th place.
The analysis is based on an evaluation of 39 quality-of-living criteria for each city including political, social, economic and environmental factors, personal safety and health, education, transport and other public services.
Baghdad remains the world’s least enticing city for expatriates with a score of 14.5. Other low-scoring cities for overall quality of living include Brazzaville in Congo (29.5), Bangui in the Central African Republic (30.6) and Khartoum in Sudan (31).
The survey makes clear that in recent years, the gap between low-ranking and high-ranking cities had widened. “While standards have improved in some regions, there remains a stark contrast between those cities where overall quality of living is good and those experiencing political and economic turmoil,” the authors say.
The world's top cities offering the best quality of life
(New York is the base city with a score of 100 points)
2007 Rank City Country Points
1 Zurich Switzerland 108.1
2 Geneva Switzerland 108.0
3 Vancouver Canada 107.7
4 Vienna Austria 107.7
5 Auckland New Zealand 107.3
6 Düsseldorf Germany 107.3
7 Frankfurt Germany 107.1
8 Munich Germany 106.9
9 Bern Switzerland 106.5
9 Sydney Australia 106.5
11 Copenhagen Denmark 106.2
12 Wellington New Zealand 105.8
13 Amsterdam Netherlands 105.7
14 Brussels Belgium 105.6
15 Toronto Canada 105.4
16 Berlin Germany 105.2
17 Melbourne Australia 105.0
18 Luxembourg Luxembourg 104.8
18 21 Ottawa Canada 104.8
20 Stockholm Sweden 104.7
21 Perth Australia 104.5
22 Montreal Canada 104.3
23 Nürnberg Germany 104.2
24 Calgary Canada 103.6
24 Hamburg Germany 103.6
26 Oslo Norway 103.5
27 Dublin Ireland 103.3
27 Honolulu USA 103.3
29 San Francisco USA 103.2
30 Adelaide Australia 103.1
30 Helsinki Finland 103.1
32 Brisbane Australia 102.8
33 Paris France 102.7
34 Singapore Singapore 102.5
35 Tokyo Japan 102.3
36 Lyon France 101.9
36 Boston USA 101.9
38 Yokohama Japan 101.7
39 London UK 101.2
40 Kobe Japan 101.0
41 Barcelona Spain 100.6
42 Madrid Spain 100.5
42 Osaka Japan 100.5
44 Washington DC USA 100.4
44 Chicago USA 100.4
46 Portland USA 100.3
47 Lisbon Portugal 100.1
48 New York City USA 100.0
49 Milan Italy 99.9
49 Seattle USA 99.9
City Mayors: Best cities in the world (Mercer)
