The cities with the highest quality of life
Mercer has released its 20th quality of living ranking, looking at which cities around the world provide the best standard of living.
The rankings are based on individual surveys conducted in each city and are revised to reflect significant political, economic, and environmental developments.
Living conditions are analysed according to 39 factors, grouped in 10 categories:
- Political and social environment
- Economic environment
- Socio-cultural environment
- Medical and health considerations
- Schools and education
- Public services and transportation
- Recreation
- Consumer goods
- Housing
- Natural environment
Overall rankings and South Africa
“Despite economic volatility in Europe due to uncertainty around Brexit as well as increased political volatility in the region overall, many of its cities still offer the world’s highest quality of living and continue to remain attractive destinations for expatriates on assignment,” the report found.
“(However) cities in emerging markets, though challenged by economic and political turmoil, are catching up with top ranking cities following decades of investing in infrastructure, recreational facilities and housing in order to attract talent and multinational businesses.”
Vienna tops the ranking for the ninth year running and is followed by Zurich, with Auckland and Munich in joint third place.
Vancouver completes the top five and is the highest ranking city in North America, while Singapore (25) and Montevideo (77) are the highest ranking cities in Asia and Latin America respectively.
The capital city of Mauritius, Port Louis (83) is the highest ranking African city for quality of living followed by the Durban (89), Cape Town (94) and Johannesburg (95).
Notably, Durban (73) topped Port Louis (80) when it comes to city sanitation, behind only Victoria (58) when it comes to African rankings.
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