HR consulting firm Mercer has released its Quality of Living ranking for 2019, looking at the quality of living in more than 450 cities around the world.<\/p>\n
The report is aimed at helping multinational companies and other organisations to compensate employees fairly when placing them on international assignments.<\/p>\n
Living conditions are analysed according to 39 factors, grouped in 10 categories:<\/p>\n
Globally, Vienna tops the ranking for the 10th year running, closely followed by Zurich (2nd), Mercer said.<\/p>\n
In joint third place are Auckland, Munich and Vancouver \u2013 the highest ranking city in North America for the last 10 years.<\/p>\n
Singapore (25), Montevideo (78) and Port Louis (83) retain their status as the highest ranking cities in Asia, South America and Africa respectively.<\/p>\n
At the bottom of the list is Baghdad, which Mercer noted has witnessed significant improvements related to both safety and health services in recent years.<\/p>\n
| Ranking<\/th>\n | City<\/th>\n | Country<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n |
|---|---|---|
| 1<\/td>\n | Vienna<\/td>\n | Austria<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| 2<\/td>\n | Z\u00fcrich<\/td>\n | Switzerland<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| 3<\/td>\n | Vancouver<\/td>\n | Canada<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| 3<\/td>\n | Munich<\/td>\n | Germany<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| 3<\/td>\n | Auckland<\/td>\n | New Zealand<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| 6<\/td>\n | D\u00fcsseldorf<\/td>\n | Germany<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| 7<\/td>\n | Frankfurt<\/td>\n | Germany<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| 8<\/td>\n | Copenhagen<\/td>\n | Denmark<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| 9<\/td>\n | Geneva<\/td>\n | Switzerland<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| 10<\/td>\n | Basel<\/td>\n | Switzerland<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Africa<\/strong><\/p>\n “In Africa, Port Louis (83) was the city with the best quality of living and also its safest (59th),” Mercer said.<\/p>\n “It was closely followed for overall quality of living by the South African cities of Durban<\/strong> (88th), Cape Town<\/strong> (95th) and Johannesburg<\/strong> (96th), though these cities still rank low for personal safety, and issues around water scarcity contributed to Cape Town falling one place this year.”<\/p>\n Historically Durban has scored high in the ranking due to its high-quality housing, plentiful recreational offerings and good consumer goods availability, Mercer said.<\/p>\n However, the city\u2019s crime problems keep it from climbing into the top 50.<\/p>\n |