BrasÀlia, the capital of Brazil, is the first Brazilian city to appear, in 104th place, in a survey released Monday, April 10, by Mercer Human Resources Consulting which regularly assesses cities worldwide and ranks them according to quality of living.
Other Brazilian cities that made the list were São Paulo in 107th place, Rio de Janeiro, as number 117 and Manaus in 129th place. Montevideo (76th place) and Buenos Aires (78th) rank as the two cities in Latinamerica with the best quality of living.
Top of the list are the Swiss cities of Zurich and Geneva, followed by Vancouver, Canada and Vienna, Austria. In contrast Baghdad is the lowest ranking city in the survey.
The analysis is part of an annual worldwide quality of living survey, covering more than 350 cities, to help governments and multinational companies place employees on international assignments.
Each city is based on an evaluation of 39 criteria, including political, social, economic and environmental factors, personal safety and health, education, transport, and other public services. Cities are ranked against New York as the base city, which has an index score of 100.
"When multinational companies set up expatriate assignments they have to provide attractive reward packages to compensate employees for any negative changes to their quality of living," Yvonne Sonsino, Principal at Mercer, commented.
"Moving abroad can be a big upheaval for expatriates and their families, so international assignments tend to carry large price tags, particularly if they are in cities with low living standards facing political unrest or terrorist threats."
She added: "Many companies use benchmark data to help them structure pay deals at the right level."
Almost half the top 30 scoring cities are in Western Europe. Besides Zurich, Geneva and Vienna, other highly-rated cities include Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich in positions 6, 7 and 8 respectively. Athens remains the lowest scoring city in Western Europe.
London is the UK’s highest ranking city and is stable at position 39. The two other UK cities covered in the survey are Birmingham and Glasgow, with both climbing one place to position 55 while Dublin has dropped two places to position 24, mainly due to increased traffic congestion.
As predicted, cities in Eastern Europe such as Budapest, Ljubljana, Prague, Vilnius, Tallinn and Warsaw continue to benefit from incremental score increases and are gradually climbing the rankings.
"The standard of living in many Eastern European cities is gradually improving, as the countries that most recently joined the EU attract greater investment" commented Slagin Parakatil, Senior Researcher at Mercer.
Positions for most cities in Europe and the Middle East are generally unchanged, with the exception of Cairo which has tumbled nine places to position 131 because of political turmoil and terrorist attacks in the city and surrounding area.
Honolulu, the highest ranking city in the U.S., drops two positions to 27. San Francisco remains at position 28; Boston, Washington, Chicago and Portland follow in positions 36, 41, 41 and 43 respectively while Houston remains the lowest ranking city in the U.S. at position 68.
Overall, U.S. cities continue to slip slightly or remain stable in the rankings, except Chicago which has moved up 11 places due to decreased crime rates.
In Latin America behind Montevideo and Buenos Aires, ranks Santiago de Chile, São Paulo, Asunción, Quito, Mexico City, Bogotá, Havana and Port au Prince in Haiti.
In South America, scores vary considerably due to differences in economic and political stability. "Argentina’s steady economic recovery is likely to push its cities up in the rankings in the next few years," commented Mr. Parakatil.
In Oceania Auckland and Wellington (NZ) have both moved up the rankings from 8 to 5 and 14 to 12 respectively, mainly due to strong internal stability relative to other cities, while Sydney remains at position 9.
In Asia, Singapore ranks 34 followed by Tokyo, Japan’s highest scoring city, at position 35. Hong Kong’s modern and efficient infrastructure, including its airport, considered one of best in the world, has pushed it up from 70 to 68 position.
The top-ranking city in China is Shanghai in place 103. "Beijing and Shanghai are on the rise and should experience rapid improvements in quality of living in the coming years. This is mainly due to greater international investment driven by the availability and lower cost of labor and manufacturing expertise" explained Mr. Parakatil.
Though cities in India generally rank lower than their Chinese counterparts, they are also showing signs of development in the region.
Worldwide Quality of Living Survey 2006
Base City: New York, USA ( =100)
Rank Rank Index Index
2006 2005 City Country 2006 2005
1 1 ZURICH Switzerland 108.2 108.0
2 2 GENEVA Switzerland 108.1 107.9
3 3 VANCOUVER Canada 107.7 107.4
4 3 VIENNA Austria 107.5 107.4
5 8 AUCKLAND New Zealand 107.3 106.5
6 5 DUSSELDORF Germany 107.2 107.0
7 6 FRANKFURT Germany 107.0 106.8
8 7 MUNICH Germany 106.8 106.7
9 9 BERN Switzerland 106.5 106.4
9 9 SYDNEY Australia 106.5 106.4
11 11 COPENHAGEN Denmark 106.2 106.2
12 14 WELLINGTON New Zealand 105.8 105.0
13 12 AMSTERDAM Netherlands 105.7 105.7
14 13 BRUSSELS Belgium 105.6 105.6
15 16 TORONTO Canada 105.4 104.9
16 16 BERLIN Germany 105.1 104.9
17 14 MELBOURNE Australia 105.0 105.0
18 18 LUXEMBOURG Luxembourg 104.8 104.8
18 21 OTTAWA Canada 104.8 104.3
20 19 STOCKHOLM Sweden 104.7 104.7
21 20 PERTH Australia 104.5 104.5
22 22 MONTREAL Canada 104.3 104.0
23 22 NURNBERG Germany 104.1 104.0
24 22 DUBLIN Ireland 103.8 104.0
25 25 CALGARY Canada 103.6 103.3
26 25 HAMBURG Germany 103.4 103.3
27 25 HONOLULU, HI United States 103.3 103.3
28 28 SAN FRANCISCO, United States 103.2 103.2
CA
29 29 ADELAIDE Australia 103.1 103.1
29 29 HELSINKI Finland 103.1 103.1
31 31 BRISBANE Australia 102.8 103.0
31 32 OSLO Norway 102.8 102.8
33 33 PARIS France 102.7 102.7
34 35 SINGAPORE Singapore 102.5 102.0
35 34 TOKYO Japan 102.3 102.3
36 36 BOSTON, MA United States 101.9 101.9
37 37 LYON France 101.6 101.6
37 37 YOKOHAMA Japan 101.6 101.6
39 39 LONDON United Kingdom 101.2 101.2
40 40 KOBE Japan 101.0 101.0
41 41 WASHINGTON, DC United States 100.4 100.4
41 52 CHICAGO, IL United States 100.4 99.3
43 42 PORTLAND, OR United States 100.3 100.3
44 43 BARCELONA Spain 100.2 100.2
45 44 MADRID Spain 100.1 100.1
46 45 NEW YORK CITY, NY United States 100.0 100.0
47 46 SEATTLE, WA United States 99.9 99.9
48 47 LEXINGTON, KY United States 99.8 99.8
49 48 PITTSBURGH, PA United States 99.7 99.7
49 48 WINSTON SALEM, United States 99.7 99.7
NC
51 50 OSAKA Japan 99.6 99.6
51 51 MILAN Italy 99.6 99.4
53 53 LISBON Portugal 98.9 98.9
53 54 NAGOYA Japan 98.9 98.6
55 54 TSUKUBA Japan 98.3 98.6
55 56 BIRMINGHAM United Kingdom 98.3 98.3
55 56 GLASGOW United Kingdom 98.3 98.3
55 56 LOS ANGELES, CA United States 98.3 98.3
59 59 CLEVELAND, OH United States 98.2 98.2
60 60 MINNEAPOLIS, MN United States 97.9 97.9
61 61 ST. LOUIS, MO United States 97.6 97.6
62 62 ROME Italy 97.4 97.0
63 63 MIAMI, FL United States 96.3 96.3
64 64 YOKKAICHI Japan 96.2 96.2
65 65 DETROIT, MI United States 96.1 96.1
66 66 ATLANTA, GA United States 95.7 95.7
67 67 OMUTA Japan 95.5 95.5
68 68 HOUSTON, TX United States 95.4 95.4
68 69 LEIPZIG Germany 95.4 95.1
68 70 HONG KONG Hong Kong 95.4 94.8
71 71 KATSUYAMA Japan 93.1 93.4
72 72 SAN JUAN Puerto Rico 92.9 92.9
73 73 PRAGUE Czech Republic 91.8 90.5
74 74 BUDAPEST Hungary 90.8 90.1
75 75 KUALA LUMPUR Malaysia 88.9 89.4
76 76 MONTEVIDEO Uruguay 88.1 88.3
77 77 PORT LOUIS Mauritius 87.7 87.7
78 78 BUENOS AIRES Argentina 87.3 87.1
79 79 ATHENS Greece 86.8 86.8
80 81 LJUBLJANA Slovenia 86.6 86.3
81 80 TAIPEI Taiwan 86.5 86.5
81 82 SANTIAGO Chile 86.5 86.2
83 83 CAPE TOWN South Africa 86.0 86.0
84 84 VILNIUS Lithuania 85.9 85.4
85 85 DUBAI United Arab Emirates 85.2 84.6
86 87 WARSAW Poland 85.1 83.8
87 86 JOHANNESBURG South Africa 84.0 84.2
88 88 LIMASSOL Cyprus 83.2 83.2
89 90 SEOUL South Korea 83.0 82.6
90 89 PANAMA CITY Panama 82.9 82.9
91 91 TALLINN Estonia 82.8 82.4
92 97 ABU DHABI United Arab Emirates 82.6 81.8
93 92 PORT ELIZABETH South Africa 82.3 82.3
94 93 MONTERREY Mexico 82.2 82.2
94 93 TUNIS Tunisia 82.2 82.2
94 93 VICTORIA Seychelles 82.2 82.2
97 96 PAPEETE French Polynesia 82.0 82.0
98 99 RIGA Latvia 81.9 81.3
99 98 JOHOR BAHARU Malaysia 81.2 81.7
100 100 NOUMEA New Caledonia 80.8 80.8
101 101 KAOHSIUNG Taiwan 80.7 80.7
102 103 BRATISLAVA Slovakia 80.5 79.0
103 102 SHANGHAI China 80.1 80.0
104 104 BRASILIA Brazil 78.8 78.8
105 118 TEL AVIV Israel 78.5 74.3
106 105 SAN JOSE Costa Rica 77.8 77.8
107 106 BANGKOK Thailand 77.7 77.7
108 107 ISTANBUL Turkey 77.1 77.1
108 107 São PAULO Brazil 77.1 77.1
110 109 YEOCHUN (YOSU) South Korea 76.3 76.2
111 109 BUCHAREST Romania 76.2 76.2
111 113 ZAGREB Croatia 76.2 75.3
113 111 ASUNCION Paraguay 76.1 76.1
114 112 NASSAU Bahamas 75.9 75.9
114 127 JERUSALEM Israel 75.9 71.8
116 115 ULSAN South Korea 75.0 75.0
117 117 RIO DE JANEIRO Brazil 74.5 74.5
118 114 QUITO Ecuador 74.2 75.1
119 119 MANILA Philippines 73.8 73.8
119 120 SOFIA Bulgaria 73.8 73.5
121 116 COLOMBO Sri Lanka 73.6 74.6
122 121 BEIJING China 73.4 73.4
123 125 LIMA Peru 73.0 72.3
124 124 CASABLANCA Morocco 72.8 72.5
125 126 MANAMA Bahrain 72.3 72.2
126 129 AMMAN Jordan 72.2 71.5
127 123 GUAYAQUIL Ecuador 72.0 72.8
128 128 MEXICO CITY Mexico 71.7 71.7
129 129 MANAUS Brazil 71.5 71.5
130 131 SANTO DOMINGO Dominican Republic 71.4 71.4
131 122 CAIRO Egypt 71.2 73.2
132 132 RAYONG Thailand 70.3 70.3
133 133 GUANGZHOU China 69.8 69.8
134 141 KUWAIT CITY Kuwait 68.1 64.3
135 135 BLANTYRE Malawi 66.9 66.8
136 136 NANJING China 66.3 66.3
137 137 LA PAZ Bolivia 65.7 65.7
138 138 LUSAKA Zambia 65.5 65.4
139 134 KINGSTON Jamaica 65.3 67.6
140 140 CARACAS Venezuela 64.5 64.5
141 139 GUATEMALA CITY Guatemala 64.3 64.6
142 142 JAKARTA Indonesia 63.7 63.7
143 143 BOGOTA Colombia 63.6 63.6
144 146 DAKAR Senegal 63.5 63.2
145 144 MEDELLIN Colombia 63.3 63.3
145 144 SANTA CRUZ Bolivia 63.3 63.3
147 147 SHENYANG China 62.6 62.6
148 148 HO CHI MINH CITY Vietnam 61.9 61.9
148 149 NAIROBI Kenya 61.9 61.1
150 151 MUMBAI India 61.0 60.6
150 153 NEW DELHI India 61.0 60.4
152 150 ACCRA Ghana 60.9 60.9
153 151 LIBREVILLE Gabon 60.6 60.6
153 154 BANGALORE India 60.6 60.0
155 154 BEIRUT Lebanon 60.0 60.0
155 154 HANOI Vietnam 60.0 60.0
157 158 SKOPJE Macedonia 59.9 58.9
158 157 ISLAMABAD Pakistan 59.8 59.7
159 159 BELGRADE Serbia & Montenegro 59.4 58.1
160 160 CHENNAI (MADRAS) India 58.3 57.8
161 161 JILIN China 57.4 57.4
162 162 JEDDAH Saudi Arabia 57.1 57.1
163 163 ST. PETERSBURG Russia 56.8 56.8
164 166 LAHORE Pakistan 56.5 56.1
164 167 SARAJEVO Bosnia-herzegovina 56.5 56.0
166 164 KIEV Ukraine 56.2 56.2
166 164 RIYADH Saudi Arabia 56.2 56.2
168 167 SAN SALVADOR El Salvador 56.0 56.0
169 169 HARARE Zimbabwe 55.9 55.9
170 170 VIENTIANE Laos, People’s Dem.
Republic Of 55.0 55.0
171 171 MANAGUA Nicaragua 54.9 54.9
171 174 KARACHI Pakistan 54.9 54.3
173 172 MOSCOW Russia 54.8 54.8
174 173 DAMASCUS Syria 54.5 54.5
175 175 COTONOU Benin 54.3 54.2
176 175 DJIBOUTI Djibouti 54.2 54.2
177 177 TEHRAN Iran 54.1 54.1
178 178 TRIPOLI Libya 53.5 53.0
179 179 ALGIERS Algeria 52.6 52.7
180 181 TIRANA Albania 51.7 51.2
181 180 SAN PEDRO SULA Honduras 51.3 51.3
182 182 YAOUNDE Cameroon 51.1 51.1
183 184 ALMATY Kazakhstan 49.8 49.8
184 185 MINSK Belarus 49.5 49.5
185 183 YANGON Myanmar 49.3 51.0
186 186 DOUALA Cameroon 48.9 48.9
187 187 MAPUTO Mozambique 48.7 48.7
187 188 HAVANA Cuba 48.7 48.3
189 189 NOVOSIBIRSK Russia 48.2 48.2
190 190 DAR ES SALAAM Tanzania 47.4 47.4
191 191 KAZAN Russia 47.0 47.0
192 194 ABIDJAN Ivory Coast 46.0 45.0
193 192 BAKU Azerbaijan 44.8 45.2
194 193 LOME Togo 44.3 45.1
195 195 ADDIS ABABA Ethiopia 44.2 44.2
196 197 BAMAKO Mali 43.9 43.6
197 199 LUANDA Angola 43.4 42.7
198 198 TASHKENT Uzbekistan 43.0 43.0
199 200 LAGOS Nigeria 41.8 41.8
200 196 DHAKA Bangladesh 41.5 43.9
201 201 CONAKRY Guinea Republic 41.2 41.2
202 202 ANTANANARIVO Madagascar 41.1 41.1
202 202 NIAMEY Niger 41.1 41.1
202 202 PORT AU PRINCE Haiti 41.1 41.1
205 205 KINSHASA Dem. Rep. Of The Congo 40.7 40.7
206 206 OUAGADOUGOU Burkina Faso 40.5 40.1
207 207 NOUAKCHOTT Mauritania 38.2 39.0
207 208 PORT HARCOURT Nigeria 38.2 38.2
207 208 SANAA Yemen Arab Republic 38.2 38.2
210 210 NDJAMENA Chad 37.2 37.2
211 211 POINTE NOIRE Congo 33.9 33.9
212 212 KHARTOUM Sudan 31.7 31.7
213 214 BANGUI Central African Republic 30.6 29.6
214 213 BRAZZAVILLE Congo 30.3 30.0
215 215 BAGHDAD Iraq 14.5 14.5
Mercopress
