Mercer is a human resources company that often places employees abroad. Each year, it does an exhaustive study on the quality of life in big urban centres around the world. According to several criteria analyzed last year, Vienna, Austria tops the list as the city with the best quality of living in the world.
The study takes several factors into consideration, including political, cultural, economic, academic, medical, utilities, transportation, recreation, consumer goods, housing and environment. Cities are ranked against New York as the base city, with an index score of 100.
European cities dominated the list. Vienna beat out Zurich and Geneva, Switzerland with a score of 108.6. Those two cities ranked 108 and 107.9 respectively. One Canadian city made it into the top five; Vancouver received a score of 107.4, tied with Auckland, New Zealand.
Four other Canadian cities made it into the top 50. Ottawa came in 14th with a score of 105.5, Toronto landed in 16th with a score of 105.3, Montreal ranked 21st with a score of 104.2 and Calgary was awarded 28th spot with a score of 103.5. The first American city on the list is Honolulu, Hawaii, ranked 31st with a score of 103.
Canada scored even better on the company’s Top 50 Eco-Cities list. Calgary came in first (145.7), Ottawa in third (139.9), Montreal and Vancouver tied for 13th (133.6) and Toronto came in 39th (127.1).
Baghdad, Iraq again ranked last out of the 221 countries surveyed.