Reports in IPAWorld

2007 Worldwide Quality of Living Survey

Published: April 2007

Zurich has the best overall quality of living in the world, according to

The 2007 Worldwide Quality of Living Survey by Mercer Human Resource

Consulting. Geneva takes a close second place, with Vancouver and Vienna

following in joint third place.

Cities are ranked against New York as the base city which has an index

score of 100. The analysis is part of Mercer's Worldwide Quality of Living

Survey, covering 215 cities, which is conducted to help governments and

major companies to place employees on international assignments.

Cities in Europe and Australia continue to dominate the top end of the

rankings for overall quality of living. Auckland and Düsseldorf share

joint fifth place and score 107.3 points. Frankfurt and Munich follow with

scores of 107.1 and 106.9 respectively. Bern and Sydney both score 106.5

points and share joint ninth place.

The analysis is based on an evaluation of 39 quality of living criteria

for each city including political, social, economic and environmental

factors, personal safety and health, education, transport and other public

services.

Other low-scoring cities for overall quality of living include Brazzaville

in Congo (29.5), Bangui in the Central African Republic (30.6) and

Khartoum in Sudan (31).

Slagin Parakatil, Senior Researcher at MercerParakatil, concluded: "In

recent years, the gap between low-ranking and high-ranking cities has

widened. While standards have improved in some regions, there remains a

stark contrast between those cities where overall quality of living is

good and those experiencing political and economic turmoil."

Publisher: Mercer Human Resource Consulting

Contact: Yvonne Sonsino , Tel: +44 20 7178 3613 , Email: yvonne.sonsino@mercer.com

+44 1908 521477