Zurich, Geneva and Vancouver remain the top cities for expats to live in, reports Mercer's latest quality of living survey.

12 April 2006

AMSTERDAM - Zurich, Geneva and Vancouver remain the top cities for expats to live in, reports the the latest quality of worldwide quality of living survey conducted by HR consulting firm Mercer. Cities in Europe, Canada and Australia dominate the top end of the rankings.

Some 215 cities are covered by Mercer's 2006 quality of living survey, which is intended to help governments and multinationals structure pay deals at the right level when sending employees on international assignments.

Each city's rating 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.

Zurich in first place, scored 108.2 points, slightly ahead of Geneva with 108.1, while Vancouver follows in third place with a score of 107.7. Baghdad maintains its position as the lowest-ranking city in the survey, scoring just 14.5.

The top ranking capital cities in the EU are Vienna, which ranks 4th worldwide with a score of 107.5, Copenhagen, ranking 11th in the survey, and Amsterdam, ranking at  13th. Athens ranks the lowest in Europe with a score of 86.8, and ranks 79th worldwide. 

In the US, 27th-placed Honolulu (down two places from 2005) is the top scorer with 103.2 points, while Houston is the lowest in 68th, unchanged from last year, with a tally of 95.4.
 
London is the UK's highest-ranking city and is stable at position 39 (score 101.2). The two other UK cities covered in the survey are Birmingham and Glasgow, which both score 98.3 and climb one place to joint 55th position.

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

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 - however Slovakia, in 24th place, is still the lowest-scoring European city with 80.5 points.

In Asia-Pacific, Auckland has moved from 8th to 5th place, scoring 107.3, and Wellington has also climbed the rankings from 14th to 12th place, mainly due to strong internal stability relative to other cities. Australia's Sydney ranked at 9th place with a score of 106.5.

Hot expat destination Singapore ranks 34th, with a score of 102.5, followed closely by Tokyo, Japan's highest scoring city, which scores 102.3.

Shanghai is the top-ranking city in China, with a placing of 103 and a score of 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," said Slagin Parakatil, Senior Researcher at Mercer.

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

Parakatil believes the slow but steady increase in the quality of living in Indian cites such as Mumbai and Bangalore is primarily due to India’s improved political relationships with other countries.

Plus, "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," he added.

[Copyright Expatica 2006]