Quality of Living worldwide city rankings

[WildRose]

2011 Quality of Living worldwide city rankings:
http://www.mercer.com/qualityoflivingpr#city-rankings

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. Frankfurt is in seventh, followed by Geneva in eighth, while Copenhagen and Bern share ninth place.

[mikey]

So many of the top-ranked cities are outrageously expensive.

[allezfred]

So many of the top-ranked cities are outrageously expensive.

Quality of life doesn't come cheap.

[pingu]

Quality of life doesn't come cheap.

But Milan is 42nd and NOT cheap (I actually didn't expect it to be on that list at all...)

[BigB08822]

Not a single U.S. city made the top 50 places for personal safety. Now, where is my pepper spray...

[LynnW]

Not a single U.S. city made the top 50 places for personal safety. Now, where is my pepper spray...

Being added to your local school's lunch menu as a food group?

[Vash01]

Not a single U.S. city made the top 50 places for personal safety. Now, where is my pepper spray...

Honolulu is #29; San Francisco is #30 and Boston 3 more places down.

Still it's disheartening that I had to wait until #29 a US city appeared on the list.

[KikiSashaFan]

Honolulu is #29; San Francisco is #30 and Boston 3 more places down.

Still it's disheartening that I had to wait until #29 a US city appeared on the list.

Overall yes, but on the second list specifically for personal safety there's none.

[Vash01]

I just read the details but I still don't know all the criteria that were used. San Francisco is a beautiful city that I love to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there- an outrageously expensive but tiny home, earthquakes, and all the economic problems..........I know better cities. Actually a few of them are in the San Francisco bay area. I would rather live in -for example- San Jose, than in San Francisco.

Boston has its own issues too- high cost of living, tough winters.

I know very few of the top cities mentioned, but I have been to Vancouver, and I do believe it deserves its high ranking.

About personal safety- the USA is considered unsafe because of the high crime rate and easy access to guns, so I am not surprised that we don't see a single US city in the top 50 for personal safety.

I am hoping to visit Vienna in the next couple of years, and it's nice to see that city at the top of the list.

[Aussie Willy]

Melbourne is number 18

[AndyWarhol]

Melbourne is number 18

Melbourne is the most liveable city in the world

[PRlady]

I don't want to offend any Austrians here, but I was in Vienna last month. The inner part is crowded and very expensive and the Austrians in general were not the friendliest people I've ever met, to put it mildly. I'd rather live in Washington than Vienna!

Geneva's gorgeous but ridiculously expensive. In most of those cities, you get a great standard of living with an income way above median. I'd like to see a ranking of best cities based on value, worldwide.

[Buzz]

My Toronto made it to #15! hehehe Yay!

[olympic]

Honolulu is #29; San Francisco is #30 and Boston 3 more places down.

Still it's disheartening that I had to wait until #29 a US city appeared on the list.

Chicago and DC made it to #43, NYC is at #47. The US cities seem to be tightly clustered around the bottom portion of the top 50.

[danceronice]

Not a single U.S. city made the top 50 places for personal safety. Now, where is my pepper spray...

Illegal to carry without a permit in most cities where you really NEED it. (Though as my brother's boss, who walks from a train stop to a bus stop in Harlem on his way home, and his boss's wife, who's lived in NYC all her life, note, there is absolutely nothing illegal about just happening to have a can of oven cleaner on you...)

DC's crime rate is both going down, and deceptive--I'd be more than fine walking across all of Northwest at 1am. Anywhere around the main government buildings is always lit, always occupied, always with some sort of law enforcement or military around. I wouldn't go deep into Anacostia alone in broad daylight. NYC, forget it alone in some areas, and certain parts of Boston are terrifying.

Detroit I'm actually not overworried about--I can carry in Michigan, and people KNOW that anyone they go after at mimimum might have pepper spray and a little pea-shooter of a gun. Don't start no trouble, won't be no trouble. In Boston, they know for sure you can't do a damn thing to stop them. (The city plan for citizen self-defence is "call 911 and die.") We had a couple areas when I was doing real estate where our boss simply wouldn't take listings, and he required all agents (especially women) to meet clients at our offices and never go anywhere alone or go with someone who made us feel uncomfortable.

[sk8er1964]

Not a single U.S. city made the top 50 places for personal safety. Now, where is my pepper spray...

This is what they based it on

*Mercer’s Personal Safety Ranking 2011 is based on measures of internal stability, crime levels, law enforcement effectiveness and host country international relations (emphasis mine).

and I suspect the last one is why you don't see any US cities.

[Jenny]

That's where I wonder how Vancouver rates so highly. All we hear on the news over the past few years is how local law enforcement mishandled the Stanley Cup riots last June, and several high profile crimes before that, including a mass murder case that continues to make headlines. The city also has massive tracts inhabited by the homeless, drug addicts and prostitutes. Those are of course issues in many (most?) cities, but Vancouver is one of the few I've been to where it's such a big part of the fabric of the city, and frankly, quite scary.

[Andora]

My Toronto made it to #15! hehehe Yay!

I'm really not sure how that happened. Maybe that's why Toronto's budget is so out of whack. They paid someone to get so high on the list.

[kwanfan1818]

That's where I wonder how Vancouver rates so highly. All we hear on the news over the past few years is how local law enforcement mishandled the Stanley Cup riots last June, and several high profile crimes before that, including a mass murder case that continues to make headlines. The city also has massive tracts inhabited by the homeless, drug addicts and prostitutes. Those are of course issues in many (most?) cities, but Vancouver is one of the few I've been to where it's such a big part of the fabric of the city, and frankly, quite scary.

"Massive tracts" inhabited by the homeless? I live here, and apart from Downtown East Side, which is a relatively small part of the city and still gentrifying fast from three directions, I'd be interested in hearing where you mean.

Like most places that are (relatively) temperate, there are more homeless young people here than in places where they'd freeze to death on the streets, and despite all of issues the police department has, harassing panhandlers is something I've witnessed only when the person is extremely aggressive. I'm sure it happens, but it's not out in the open the way I've seen in other cities, including Seattle.

[Jenny]

"Massive tracts" inhabited by the homeless? I live here, and apart from Downtown East Side, which is a relatively small part of the city and still gentrifying fast from three directions, I'd be interested in hearing where you mean.

Shouldn't have used the plural I guess. I'm thinking specifically of the very long stretch between downtown and the rink where several skating events have been held. It's an awful, sad area. That's in addition to the more aggressive homeless and disadvantaged I've seen downtown. I've never been to Seattle, but the only other city I've seen that even comes close to what I've seen in Vancouver is San Francisco.

I'm sure Vancouver has it's strong points too, but I'm just surprised that it tends to rank highly on these sorts of surveys when the city's problems are out there in plain sight.