European cities dominate worldwide quality of living rankings
Vienna ranks highest for quality of living; Baghdad, the lowest
Luxembourg ranks highest for personal safety; Baghdad, the lowest
Vienna has the best living standard in the world, according to the Mercer 2011 Quality of Living Survey. Zurich and Auckland follow in second and third position, respectively, and Munich is in fourth, with Düsseldorf and Vancouver sharing fifth place. European cities represent over half the cities amongst the top 25 in the ranking.
Globally, the cities with the lowest quality of living are Khartoum, Sudan (217), Port-au-Prince, Haiti (218), N'Djamena, Chad (219), and Bangui, Central African Republic (220). Baghdad, Iraq (221) ranks last in Mercer's table.
Mercer conducts the survey to help governments and multi-national companies compensate employees fairly when placing them on international assignments. Mercer's Quality of Living index list covers 221 cities, ranked against New York as the base city.
This year, the survey separately identifies those cities with the highest personal safety ranking based on internal stability, crime levels, law enforcement effectiveness and the host country's international relations. Luxembourg tops this personal safety ranking, followed by Bern, Helsinki and Zurich -- all ranked at number two. Baghdad (221) is the world's least safe city.
Slagin Parakatil, Senior Researcher at Mercer, commented: "The top-ranking cities for personal safety and security are in politically stable countries with good international relations and relatively sustainable economic growth. Most of the low-scoring cities are in countries with civil unrest, high crime levels and little law enforcement."
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