To what extent are you happy with your life and with living in Holland?

Time of the year, runny nose, headache, fever… Sitting across from the GP, the doctor coldly tells you that he will not give you a prescription simply because "it's not done here". Leaving the clinic, you see a native Dutchman lifting his eyebrows and saying something nasty about an "allochtoon". It leaves you with a creepy feeling – just what is your status here as a foreigner.

Off to work. In the elevator you are greeted by your Dutch boss who says, "By the way, next week I'm off on a four week ski vacation in Switzerland, can you fill in for me while I am gone? It shouldn't be a problem, should it?" No, of course not, not in the month December.

After a hard days work, you decide to head home.  When driving home in rush hour in brrr December, the cars in front of you remind you of a string of red Christmas lights. In your car, feeling as if time might have just shut down for good, you wonder why you chose to live in a congested country.

Your wife calls your GSM and asks you to stop at the supermarket for "rookworst" and "boerenkool". At the supermarket parking lot, you search for a spot to park. But you are not the only one. Having nicked the last parking spot, your parking lot competitor gives you the finger. You race into the supermarket, find the "rookworst" but not the "boerenkool", and head for the check out line. Just before you have decided which queue will allow you to get home before 20:00 hours, a shopper cuts right in front of you with a bulging shopping cart and says "oh sorry, are you also in this queue?".

Once having finally reached home, your eyes upon your "crib", you ask yourself why you traded a single house with a large garden for a Dutch condominium and a fenced in tile patio embellished by a thin stroke of grass.

How the Netherlands ranks worldwide

If the Netherlands is not your cup of tea, it might be helpful to know that there are resource consultants who do research which cities in the world offer Expats the highest quality of living. An Expat, you want to work and live in cities which offer the most. Keeping abreast of cities with the best employment prospects, good housing, excellent schools for the kids etc., could help you in your next career decision and ultimately influence just how happy you are in life.

Being knowledgeable about the "quality of life"  level a city has, comes in handy when negotiating with your boss about moving to Milan (lowest ranking European city in the top 50 according Mercer's Quality of Living Reports when Zurich is still an option. Zurich is ranked number one as having the highest overall quality of living, according to Mercer Human Resource Consulting. So maybe some kind of compensation for deciding to go to Milan should be part of the package deal.

Mercer indexes cities yearly from around the world, top to bottom. The cities are ranked against New York, the base city in this research. Did you know that Amsterdam just falls short of making the top ten, at number 13, when it comes to the overall quality of living and occupies the 21st place when it comes to Mercer's Worldwide Health and Sanitation Ranking 2007?

Overall quality of living

Of the 215 cities Mercer covered, the ones which dominate the top of the list are situated in Western Europe, North America, Australasia and Japan. European and Australasian cities dominate the top in terms of overall quality of living. Top five rankings for cities in Europe in 2007 went to: Zurich, Geneva, Vienna, Düsseldorf, and Frankfurt. And last and yes, least, is Baghdad, as the Expat's world's worst city to live in. Don't leave without a fully-loaded remuneration package when heading for Baghdad.

Health care and sanitation

If you want top ranking European health care and sanitation you should move to Helsinki, Finland.  Of the 30 top scoring cities, half of them are in Western Europe. If you are looking outside Europe, you might want to check out North America, where four of the five top scorers for health and sanitation are located. Calgary is number one on the list. Other geographical regions which are home to top scorers are: Australia and Japan. All the Australian cities rank higher than New York. The five top rated cities in Asia are all located in Japan.

The situation in the Middle East has improved, with Abu Dhabi and Dubai as the highest ranking Middle Eastern cities. Except for Prague, Eastern European cities had a low score. China, India and Africa are low scorers. Many of the African cities appear at the bottom of the list.

Since, according to Mercer, the gap between low ranking and high ranking cities continues to grow, you might want to stay posted to make sure you are getting the best deal life has to offer.
 

December 2007

[Copyright Expatica 2007]