European cities dominate annual worldwide quality of living

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European cities dominate the top 10 worldwide rankings for locations with the best quality of living, according to Mercer's 2008 Quality of Living Survey.

Top 10 cities

Zurich
Vienna
Geneva
Vancouver
Auckland
Düsseldorf
Munich
Frankfurt
Bern
Sydney

Quote:

European cities dominate annual worldwide quality of living rankings
Zurich scores highest for overall quality of living; Baghdad, the lowest
Luxembourg ranks highest for personal safety; Baghdad, the lowest

European cities dominate the worldwide rankings of locations with the best quality of living, according to Mercer's 2008 Quality of Living survey. Zurich retains its 2007 title as the highest ranked city, followed jointly by Vienna (2), Geneva (2), then Vancouver (4) and Auckland (5).

In the UK, London ranks 38, while Birmingham and Glasgow are jointly 56. The highest entry for the United States is Honolulu, appearing at number 28. The cities with the lowest quality of living ranking are Ndjamena (211), Khartoum (212), Brazzaville (213) and Bangui (214). Baghdad, ranking 215, retains its position at the bottom of the table.
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The survey also identifies those cities with the highest personal safety ranking based on internal stability, crime, effectiveness of law enforcement and relationships with other countries. Luxembourg is top, followed by Bern, Geneva, Helsinki and Zurich, all equally placed at number 2. Chicago, Houston and San Francisco are amongst the safest cities in the US, all ranking at 53. Baghdad (215) is the world's least safe city along with Kinshasa (214), Karachi (213), Nairobi (212) and Bangui (211). Luxembourg scores 131.4 on the index while Baghdad scores 3.8.
... ... ...
Canadian cities dominate the rankings in the Americas. Vancouver (4) has the best quality of living followed by Toronto (15), Ottawa (19) and Montreal (22). In the US, after Honolulu (28) comes San Francisco (29), Boston (37) and Chicago (44). Washington, DC, ranks 44, above New York (49).
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In terms of personal safety, Canadian cities again perform best with Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver all ranked jointly at 22. In the US, Chicago, Honolulu, Houston, Lexington, San Francisco and Winston-Salem all share rank 53. Elsewhere in the region, Santo Domingo has the highest ranking at 92 followed by Panama City (96) and Monterrey (99). Bogota (207) in Colombia has the lowest levels of personal safety. The Canadian cities score 115.8 compared to Bogota's 30.4.
... ... ...
Switzerland and Germany dominate the European cities with the best quality of living, each having three cities represented in the top 10. Bern, in Switzerland, ranks 9 following behind Zurich and Geneva. Dusseldorf (6), Munich and Frankfurt (both at 7) represent Germany. Outside the top 10 are Copenhagen (11), Amsterdam (13), Brussels (14), Berlin (16) and Luxembourg (17). Dublin, ranking 25, is followed by Paris (32), Barcelona (42) and Madrid (43). Lisbon is number 44 and is followed by Rome, 55, up from 61 in 2007. Prague (71) is the highest-ranking eastern European city followed by Budapest (74), Vilnius (78), Ljubljana (82) and Warsaw (85). The lowest ranking European city is Minsk (183) in Belarus. Minsk scores 49.4 on the index compared with Zurich's 108. Milan (41), Lisbon (44), Vilnius (78) and Riga (89) have also become more attractive destinations, rising markedly in the rankings since 2007.

The rankings of Bern, Geneva and Zurich, all at 2, confirm Switzerland's position as one of the safest countries in Europe. According to the index, Luxembourg, the European city with the highest level of personal safety, scores 131.4. This is in stark contrast with Moscow, the European city scoring the lowest at 37.7 (196). In the UK, Glasgow (43) and Birmingham (53) rank safer than London (69).

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i see VANCOUVER made it ! Laughing

problem is , it is also the most expensive large city in canada - housing is even more expensive than in toronto .
vancouver also receives A LOT OF RAIN !!! (being between the pacific and the mountains)
and not to forget , vancouver lies in the earthquake prone zone that runs from california to alaska .

ministry of natural resources - canada :

Quote:

The largest earthquake in this century was a magnitude 7.3 event in 1946, centred beneath central Vancouver Island. Were this earthquake to occur today under Vancouver, damage would be in the billions of dollars.

complete article >>>VANCOUVER EARTHQUAKE PRONE

so if you have plenty of money , enjoy rainy weather and don't mind THE BIG ONE Shocked

it's the perfect place in canada - certainly the rich immigrants from china seem to enjoy it !.

i'll keep hanging out near eastern lake ontario :wink:
house prices relatively inexpensive , some rain - but now excessive ; while the st. lawrence valley is an earth quake prone area , the bumps have all been very minor (so far anyways :wink: ) ; also , we are close to watertown , NY and a VALDI store :wink: - be going before month-end .
hbg

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I've been to Dusseldorf. I don't think there are any public golf courses there, only private.

End of discussion.

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Something is rotten in Denmark, so to speak. Why do so many people come to NYC? I suspect/opine that this article is a red-herring of sorts, since different people are attracted to a city for different reasons. Quality of life is a subjective view anyway. The article, in my opinion, is based on the false premise that one can measure quality of life by some type of survey. I can't agree.

For example, NYC often gets a certain type of hard-driving, goal oriented person, with specific goals relating to the NYC economy. Other cities get other types of folks, I believe. Quality of life is an ethereal quality from year to year, decade to decade, century to century, in my opinion.

I discount all the non-English speaking cities, since English is the lingua franca of the 21st century, and any other language is just atavistic, in my narrow opinion. Naturally, those who speak other languages wouldn't agree, but that doesn't change the fact that the world is busy learning English in all its varied dialects and accents.

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None of those places are free. None of the U.S. cities even way down on the list are free. I'd rather boat to work in Cedar Rapids with my gun in my lap than ride my Vespa in gay Pareee.

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France breathes a sigh of relief

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What's France?

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Foofie is again displaying his crying ignorance and bigotry about anything that is not his square inch of land..

Foofie wrote:

Something is rotten in Denmark, so to speak.

As it is in many places I know.

What is rotten in those places is tolerance, understanding, knowledge and such human traits.

Foofie wrote:

Why do so many people come to NYC?

I'd guess it's not because of you.

Should I remind you which country is most researched by tourists?

Foofie wrote:

The article, in my opinion, is based on the false premise that one can measure quality of life by some type of survey. I can't agree.

Typical BS from someone who hasn't got a grade.

This survey was made by an American consulting company:
Mercer

According to the 39 key criteria shown here:
Criteria

Foofie wrote:

I discount all the non-English speaking cities, since English is the lingua franca of the 21st century, and any other language is just atavistic, in my narrow opinion. Naturally, those who speak other languages wouldn't agree, but that doesn't change the fact that the world is busy learning English in all its varied dialects and accents.

It's a fact that you are boasting around about the English language being lingua franca.

You, however, forgot that it's only a current state of matters, as you only have some estranged notions of history.

Latin, Portuguese, Spanish and French have also been linguas francas at a time and I'm guessing that English will one day leave the place to some other language.

Which would be some kind of dynamics of evolution, unlike stale Foofie..

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Francis wrote:

Foofie wrote:
I discount all the non-English speaking cities, since English is the lingua franca of the 21st century, and any other language is just atavistic, in my narrow opinion. Naturally, those who speak other languages wouldn't agree, but that doesn't change the fact that the world is busy learning English in all its varied dialects and accents.

It's a fact that you are boasting around about the English language being lingua franca.

You, however, forgot that it's only a current state of matters, as you only have some estranged notions of history.

Latin, Portuguese, Spanish and French have also been linguas francas at a time and I'm guessing that English will one day leave the place to some other language.

Which would be some kind of dynamics of evolution, unlike stale Foofie..

Besides that - I wonder why Foofie uses Italian and thinks, English would be a Frankish language ...

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Quote:

Latin, Portuguese, Spanish and French have also been linguas francas at a time and I'm guessing that English will one day leave the place to some other language.

I'd guess Mandarin. In that case it may well be the lingua chinka

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francis wrote :

Quote:

This survey was made by an American consulting company:
Mercer

i'm sure any american company coming up with such results has been infiltrated by foreigners !!!
i know for a fact that mercer is employing canadians !
that is UN-AMERICAN !!! Laughing

:wink:
hbg

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Walter Hinteler wrote:

Besides that - I wonder why Foofie uses Italian and thinks, English would be a Frankish language ...

That is what makes English such an uber language mein liebe Valter. English borrows from all other languages. It incorporates words from every other language, including the Native American Indian languages. It is the only language that has done this to such an extent.

Esperanto was a well meaning attempt; however, English took its place. And, it is a non-sequitor ("Latin I presume Holmes") whether the sun ever sets on the United States politically, since by then the civilized world will be speaking English.

And, Mandarin may be spoken one day in many places, but I predict it will then be written in the Latin alphabet (and then English words will creep into the language).

The U.S. Manifest Destiny of the 19th century has been replaced by the Manifest Destiny of English. Don't believe me.

Notice what language we are communicating in. (I know; don't end a sentence with a preposition!)

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How do you say "Microsoft Windows" in German?

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The folks who put this together obviously never visited Harbor Springs, MI, nor Carmel/Pacific Grove, CA.

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cjhsa wrote:

How do you say "Microsoft Windows" in German?

BMW.

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cjhsa wrote:

The folks who put this together obviously never visited Harbor Springs, MI, nor Carmel/Pacific Grove, CA.

Quote:

The Mercer database contains more than 350 cities, however only 215 cities have been considered for the quality of living 2008 ranking in order to compare from one year to the next.

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Walter Hinteler wrote:

cjhsa wrote:
How do you say "Microsoft Windows" in German?

BMW.

Uh, no.

BMW's don't do BSOD.

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The embarrassment - Auckland, land of the auks, is more liveable than Sydney! Pah!!!

hamburger - I'm not too sure about the German cities, but all the others I know are all bloody expensive to live in!

Beautiful in Sydney this winter Saturday, though.

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Cjhsa is talking manicure-ville re Pac Grove and Carmel. I like them, considered buying in and moving to Pacific Grove, low end bungalow of course, and for noncity reasons decided not. perhaps stupidly - but re major cities of the world, they're not in competition.

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Carmel itself has suburbanized, largely for great money; I miss the canyon of old. And I liked Carmel, last time I went through. I've gotten to know a few people - each very different - with old time Carmel/Pac Grove connection, and am less put off.

This is odd for a person who got into putting Carmel in a pocket with Solvang ... and Disneyland as primary tourist traps.

Still, what has this to do with major world cities? Nothing, so I'll be quiet (soon).

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European cities dominate annual worldwide quality of living

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