City quality of life indices
The world's most livable cities is an informal name given to any list of cities as they rank on a reputable annual survey of living conditions. Two examples are the Mercer Quality of Living Survey and The Economist's World's Most Livable Cities (using data from Mercer as well).
Livability rankings are designed for use by employers assigning hardship allowances as part of job relocation.[1] There have been numerous arguments over the expansion of livability rankings for other purposes.[2][3][4][5][6] However, the annual city rankings attract extensive media coverage, are a popular topic of discussion and have attracted the attention of even the White House.[7]
Quality of living survey
| Mercer 2010 Quality of Living Survey[8] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| City | Country | Rating | |
| 1 | Vienna |  Austria
|
108.6 |
| 2 | Zurich |  Switzerland
|
108 |
| 3 | Geneva | Switzerland
|
107.9 |
| 4 | Auckland |  New Zealand
|
107.4 |
| Vancouver |  Canada
|
107.4 | |
| 6 | Düsseldorf |  Germany
|
107.2 |
| 7 | Frankfurt | Germany
|
107 |
| Munich | Germany
|
107 | |
| 9 | Bern | Switzerland
|
106.5 |
| 10 | Sydney |  Australia
|
106.3 |
-Stephansdom_Vienna_July_2008_(31).jpg)
The Mercer Quality of Living Survey is released annually, comparing 221 cities based on 39 criteria. New York is given a baseline score of 100 and other cities are rated in comparison. Important criteria are safety, education, hygiene, health care, culture, environment, recreation, political-economic stability and public transportation.[9]
The list helps multi-national companies decide where to open offices or plants, and how much to pay employees.
In the 2010 list of cities, the top of the list is dominated by Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand; and Switzerland and Germany both have 3 cities in the top 10. The first entries from other countries are Singapore at 22, the USA at 31, and Japan at 37. Baghdad was at the bottom of the list. Of the 25 cities at the bottom, 15 are in Africa. Compared to lists for previous years, cities in South Asia (mainly India), East Asia (mainly China), the Middle East and Eastern Europe are clearly on the rise.
Mercer also has a 'Personal Safety' list, which is also dominated by EU and Swiss cities: the top five are Luxembourg, Bern, Geneva, Helsinki and Zurich.
2010 year’s ranking also identifies the cities with the best eco-ranking based on water availability and drinkability, waste removal, quality of sewage systems, air pollution and traffic congestion. Calgary is at the top of this index (score 145.7), followed by Honolulu in second place (score 145.1) and Ottawa and Helsinki in joint third (score 139.9). Wellington in New Zealand (5), Minneapolis (6), Adelaide (7) and Copenhagen fill the next four slots, while Kobe, Oslo and Stockholm share ninth place. Port-au-Prince in Haiti ranks at the bottom of this table with a score of only 27.8.[10]
World's Most Livable Cities
| The Economist's World's Most Liveable Cities 2011 (Top 10)[11] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| City | Country | Rating | |
| 1 | Melbourne | Australia
|
97.5 |
| 2 | Vienna | Austria
|
97.4 |
| 3 | Vancouver | Canada
|
97.4 |
| 4 | Toronto | Canada
|
97.2 |
| 5 | Calgary | Canada
|
96.6 |
| 6 | Helsinki |  Finland
|
96.2 |
| 7 | Sydney | Australia
|
96.1 |
| 8 | Perth | Australia
|
95.9 |
| Adelaide | Australia
|
95.9 | |
| 10 | Auckland | New Zealand
|
95.7 |
The Economist Intelligence Unit's livability also uses data from the Mercer consulting group and shows cities in Canada, Australia, Austria, Finland and New Zealand as the ideal destinations thanks to a widespread availability of goods and services, low personal risk and an effective infrastructure. It does not take into account the cost of living as a factor in 'livability'. The Economist Intelligence Unit has been criticized by the New York Times for being overly anglocentric, stating that "The Economist clearly equates livability with speaking English."[13]
The August 2011 report placed Melbourne, Australia as the most livable city in the world, with Vienna, Austria taking second place followed by Vancouver, Canada. [14]
Other Canadian cities also ranked highly in the survey, with Toronto and Calgary holding the 4th and 5th positions respectively. Three other Australian cities (Sydney at 7th and Perth and Adelaide tied at 8th) claimed positions in the top ten.
Harare, Zimbabwe was rated the worst city in the world to call home. African and South Asian cities were generally the worst performing in the EIU's rankings.
Pittsburgh ranked 29th tops American cities in the list just ahead of Honolulu at 30th and Los Angeles (which rose to) 44th and New York (which held onto) 56th place.
London moved up one place to 53rd while Paris came in at number 16.
The top Asian city was the Japanese city of Osaka at number 12, tying with Geneva, and beating the Japanese capital of Tokyo, which was placed 18th.[15]
Most Liveable Cities Index
| Monocle's Most Livable Cities Index 2010 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| City | Country | 2009 | |
| 1 | Munich | Germany
|
(04) |
| 2 | Copenhagen |  Denmark
|
(02) |
| 3 | Zurich | Switzerland
|
(01) |
| 4 | Tokyo |  Japan
|
(03) |
| 5 | Helsinki | Finland
|
(05) |
| 6 | Stockholm |  Sweden
|
(06) |
| 7 | Paris |  France
|
(08) |
| 8 | Vienna | Austria
|
(07) |
| 9 | Melbourne | Australia
|
(09) |
| 10 | Madrid |  Spain
|
(12) |
Since 2007 the lifestyle magazine Monocle publishes an annual list of liveable cities. The list in 2009 was named "The Most Liveable Cities Index" and presented 25 top locations for quality of life. The winning city in 2008 was Copenhagen, Denmark and the 2009 winner was Zurich, Switzerland.
Important criteria in this survey are safety/crime, international connectivity, climate/sunshine, quality of architecture, public transportation, tolerance, environmental issues and access to nature, urban design, business conditions, pro-active policy developments and medical care.
The 2010 rankings continued thus: Berlin (11), Sydney (12), Honolulu (13), Fukuoka (14), Geneva (15), Vancouver (16), Barcelona (17), Oslo (18), Montreal (19), Auckland (20), Singapore (21), Portland (22), Kyoto (23), Hamburg (24), Lisbon (25).
See also
References
- ^ Business travel Gulliver. "Liveability rankings: It's Vancouver, again". The Economist. Retrieved 2011-03-27.
{{cite news}}:|author=has generic name (help) - ^ Fisher, Marc. "Most Livable City: Bethesda? - Raw Fisher". Voices.washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2011-03-27.
- ^ "Pink Slip: We're Number 9! Worcester named 9th most livable city in the US". Pinkslipblog.blogspot.com. 2009-04-13. Retrieved 2011-03-27.
- ^ "Houston Strategies: Why the 'Livable Cities' rankings are wrong". Houstonstrategies.blogspot.com. 2009-08-16. Retrieved 2011-03-27.
- ^ Print! Email! Author: 2thinknow (2010-07-07). "City rankings - Better cities rankings than livability rankings alone | Latest News | Innovation Cities Program - Analyst Reports, Index Rankings, Benchmarking Data, Workshops". Innovation-cities.com. Retrieved 2011-03-27.
{{cite web}}:|author=has generic name (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ 11:54 AM. "Yawn-Forbes says Pittsburgh is the most livable city (Mexico: 2010, college) - Pennsylvania (PA) - City-Data Forum". City-data.com. Retrieved 2011-03-27.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_news/Daily/2010/July10/071910/072210-01.htm
- ^ "News Release: 2010 Mercer Quality of Living survey". Mercer.com. 2010-05-26. Retrieved 2011-03-27.
- ^ Olympics host Vancouver ranked world's most liveable city accessed 12 February 2010
- ^ Mercer's 2010 Quality of Living survey highlights - Global
- ^ Business travel Gulliver. "Liveability ranking: Where the livin' is easiest". The Economist. Retrieved 2011-03-27.
{{cite news}}:|author=has generic name (help) - ^ Melbourne Tops Livability Survey
- ^ The Best Place to Live? 2010/05/27 New York Times
- ^ eiu.com August 2011
- ^ "World's most liveable cities 2011 | Melbourne beats Sydney". Theage.com.au. 2011-02-21. Retrieved 2011-03-27.