Mercer Quality of Living Survey

The Mercer Quality of Living Survey ranks 221 cities from Vienna to Baghdad on quality of life.

In 2010, Vienna won the title as the highest ranked city, followed by Zürich (2), Geneva (3), jointly Vancouver (4) and Auckland (4), and Düsseldorf (5). Vienna has been ranked first for six consecutive years. The quality of living survey is conducted to help governments and major companies place employees on international assignments.

The survey also identifies those cities with the highest personal safety ranking based upon internal stability, crime, effectiveness of law enforcement and relationships with other countries. In this case, Luxembourg is top, followed by Bern, Helsinki and Zürich, all equally placed at number 2.

Scoring

The cities — 221 in total — were evaluated on 39 factors including political, economic, environmental, personal safety, health, education, transportation and other public service factors. Cities were compared to New York City which was given a base score of 100.

Vienna, Austria

Zürich, Switzerland

Vancouver, Canada

Munich, Germany

Auckland, New Zealand

Düsseldorf, Germany

Sydney, Australia

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Toronto, Canada

Berlin, Germany

Copenhagen, Denmark

Melbourne, Australia

Stockholm, Sweden

Wellington, New Zealand

Port Louis, Mauritius

Calgary, Canada

Singapore

Dublin, Ireland

Lisbon, Portugal

Oslo, Norway

Chicago, United States

2015 Rank	2014 Rank	2012 Rank	2010 Rank	City	Country	Index 2010
1	1	1	1	Vienna	Austria	108.6
2	2	2	2	Zürich	Switzerland	108.0
3	3	3	4	Auckland	New Zealand	107.4
4	4	4	7	Munich	Germany	107.0
5	5	5	4	Vancouver	Canada	107.4
6	6	6	6	Düsseldorf	Germany	107.2
7	7	7	7	Frankfurt	Germany	107.0
8	8	8	3	Geneva	Switzerland	107.9
9	9	9	11	Copenhagen	Denmark	106.2
10	10	10	10	Sydney	Australia	106.3
11	11	12	13	Amsterdam	Netherlands	105.7
12	12	13	12	Wellington	New Zealand	105.9
13	10	10	9	Bern	Switzerland	106.5
14		16	17	Berlin	Germany	105.0
15	15	15	16	Toronto	Canada	105.3
16	14	14	14	Ottawa	Canada	105.5
16		17	18	Melbourne	Australia	104.8
16		17	23	Hamburg	Germany	104.1
19		19	19	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	104.6
19		19	20	Stockholm	Sweden	104.5
21		27	30	Stuttgart	Germany	103.3
22		21	21	Perth	Australia	104.2
22		22	15	Brussels	Belgium	105.4
24	23	23	21	Montreal	Canada	104.2
25		24	24	Nuremberg	Germany	103.9
26		25	28	Singapore	Singapore	103.5
27	27	29	32	San Francisco	United States	103.0
27		29	32	Adelaide	Australia	103.0
27		29	34	Paris	France	102.9
30		26	26	Canberra	Australia	103.6
31		32	24	Oslo	Norway	103.9
31		32	35	Helsinki	Finland	102.6
33		32	28	Calgary	Canada	103.5
34	34	35	26	Dublin	Ireland	103.6
34		35	37	Boston	United States	102.2
36		28	31	Honolulu	United States	103.1
37		37	36	Brisbane	Australia	102.4
38		40	44	Barcelona	Spain	100.6
39		39	38	Lyon	France	101.9
40		38	39	London	United Kingdom	101.6
41		41	41	Milan	Italy	100.8
41	43	44	45	Lisbon	Portugal	100.3
43		42	45	Chicago	United States	100.3
44		44	40	Tokyo	Japan	101.4
44		44	49	New York City	United States	100.0
44		44	50	Seattle	United States	99.8
47		48	41	Kobe	Japan	100.8
48		49	41	Yokohama	Japan	100.8
48				Los Angeles	United States
50		43	45	Washington DC	United States	100.3

Top cities by region

North America

Rank	Overall Ranking 2010	City	Quality of living
1	4	Vancouver	107.4
2	14	Ottawa	105.5
3	16	Toronto	105.3
4	21	Montréal	104.2
5	28	Calgary	103.5

Asia

Rank	Overall Ranking 2010	City	Quality of living
1	28	Singapore	103.5
2	40	Tokyo	101.4
3	41	Yokohama	100.8
4	41	Kobe	100.8
5	51	Osaka	100.5

Europe

Rank	Overall Ranking	City	Quality of living
1	1	Vienna	108.6
2	2	Zürich	108.0
3	3	Geneva	107.9
4	6	Düsseldorf	107.2
5	7	Munich	107.0

Oceania

Rank	Overall Ranking	City	Quality of living
1	4	Auckland	107.4
2	10	Sydney	106.3
3	12	Wellington	105.9
4	18	Melbourne	104.8
5	21	Perth	104.2

Middle East & North Africa

Rank	Overall Ranking	City	Quality of living
1	75	Dubai	87.0
2	83	Abu Dhabi	84.1
3	100	Muscat	81.7

Sub-Saharan Africa

Rank	Overall Ranking	City	Quality of living
1	82	Port Louis	87.7
2	86	Cape Town	85.7
3	90	Johannesburg	83.3

Latin America

2015 Rank (2012 Rank)	2015 Overall Ranking (2012 Overall Ranking)	City
1 (1)	78 (77)	Montevideo
2 (2)	91 (81)	Buenos Aires
3 (3)	93 (91)	Santiago
4 (4)	95 (93)	Panama City
5 (7)	106 (105)	San José
6 (5)	107 (101)	Brasília
7 (6)	135 (104)	Monterrey
8 (8)	114 (111)	Asunción
9 (9)	119 (112)	Rio de Janeiro
10 (10)	120 (115)	São Paulo
11 (12)	124 (121)	Lima
12 (11)	126 (120)	Mexico City
13 (-)	127 (-)	Manaus
14 (13)	129 (125)	Quito
14 (14)	109 (130)	Bogotá
15 (15)	150 (140)	Guatemala City

See also

• World's most livable cities
• Global Liveability Survey
• List of most expensive cities for expatriate employees

External links

• Mercer's Quality of Living survey page
• 2011 Quality of Living Worldwide Survey – city rankings (press release ). Mercer.com. Archived from the original on 28.11.2012.

• 2011 Mercer Quality of Living Interactive World Map
• 2012 Quality of Living Worldwide Survey – city rankings (press release)
• Full rankings