# Cities with best quality of life rankings

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-best-quality-of-life-rankings/158868>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [March 3, 2003, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-best-quality-of-life-rankings/158868 "2003-03-03T23:15:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-best-quality-of-life-rankings/158868/1 "2003-03-03T23:15:12Z")

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Just saw this from [BBC Online](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2815625.stm)

> [@](#):
>
> The annual survey of 215 cities by Mercer Human Resources Consulting placed Zurich ahead of another Swiss city, Geneva, which shared second place with the Austrian capital, Vienna, and Vancouver in Canada.
> 
> Cities in Europe, Australia and New Zealand continued to rank highest in the table, while poor and war-torn African cities languished at the bottom.
> 
> In a related survey, Luxembourg was named the world’s safest city, while the lowest ranking was given to the capital of the Central African Republic, Bangui.

Which came originally from a [Mercer Human Resources Survey](http://www.mercerhr.com/pressrelease/details.jhtml?idContent=1084730)

> [@](#):
>
> Mercer’s overall quality of life survey has revealed **Zurich as the world’s city with the best quality of life** , with 106.5 points. Last year’s top scoring city, Vancouver, slips to joint second place with Vienna, with a rating of 106 points.
> 
> Cities in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand continue to dominate the top of the table with Sydney and Geneva sharing joint fourth place with 105.5 points, and Auckland, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, and Helsinki being ranked sixth, scoring 105.
> 
> The analysis was based on an evaluation of 39 quality of life criteria for each city including political, social, economic, and environmental factors; personal safety and health; education; transport; and other public services. The survey was conducted to assist multinational companies in assessing international hardship allowances for their expatriate workers.
> 
> **The world’s least appealing city remains Brazzaville in Congo** , despite its score at the bottom of the table rising by one point from last year to 27.5. Other poor-scoring cities for overall quality of life include Bangui in the Central African Republic (29), Khartoum in Sudan (31.5), and Pointe Noire in Congo (32.5).

Just thought that you should know.

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**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-best-quality-of-life-rankings/158868/2 "2003-03-04T00:08:18Z")

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Well, that certainly puts a crimp in _my_ bitter complaining about life in this city.

The only option I have that isn’t either a lateral or downward move is _Zurich?_

What are the winters like?

And where the hell did I put that Berlitz pamphlet?

If they didn’t take housing and transport into account in that survey, we’d have kicked your collective Swiss butt! 😉

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**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cities-with-best-quality-of-life-rankings/158868/3 "2003-03-04T10:38:59Z")

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I’ll trade you Vancouver (even Vancouver, Washington) straight up for Cincinnati, OH. I’ll even throw in the entire Dayton area for no extra charge.