Hamburg is prob the tops for nightlife/clubbing, Moscow for some good criminal-earning deals, Panama for keeping that money, Paris for eating stuff, Bagdad for watching violence in action, L.A. for wasting money, Amsterdam for puffing stuff - they all have good points
Vancouver is the world's best place to live, a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has found.
The EIU ranked 127 cities in terms of personal risk, infrastructure and the availability of goods and services.
All the cities that fell into the top "liveability" bracket were based in Canada, Australia and Western Europe.
The worst places were Algiers in Algeria, and Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea because "many aspects of daily life present challenges", the EIU said.
Safe havens?
Canadian cities scored well, as did Austria's Vienna and Switzerland's Geneva, because they are not seen as targets for terror attacks.
TOP TEN
Vancouver
Melbourne
Vienna
Geneva
Perth
Adelaide
Sydney
Zurich
Toronto
Calgary
Source: EIU
The main uncertainty for people living in the those cities are climate-related, the EIU said.
"In the current global political climate, it is no surprise that the most desirable destinations are those with the lower perceived threat of terrorism," said Jon Copestake, editor of the EIU report.
The survey has produced a mixed picture of the world's cities. London was ranked in the 10th group, on a par with Dublin and Los Angeles, but one place below Manchester, four behind Berlin, five lower than Tokyo, and six off Helsinki, Frankfurt and Stockholm.
Bottom 10 cities
Tehran
Douala
Harare
Abidjan
Phnom Penh
Lagos
Karachi
Dhaka
Algiers
Port Moresby
Source: EIU
In Latin America, "no city manages to present ideal living conditions, neither do any fall into the category where extreme difficulties are faced", the EIU said.
Montevideo in Uruguay, Santiago in Chile and Buenos Aires in Argentina offer the region's best conditions. Bogota in Colombia and Caracas in Venezuela score the least favourably.
In Asia, cities in Japan, South Korea, Singapore, China and Taiwan all score well, as do Australia's main hubs.
Africa and the Middle East fare less well, with the EIU citing concerns about terror attacks, and economic and political instability.
Vancouver No. 2 in world
Ties with Vienna in quality-of-life survey of 215 major world cities
Drew Hasselback
Financial Post
Monday, March 14, 2005
Vancouver's livability puts it in the top rank of North American cities.
For the third year in a row, Vancouver has been ranked as the city with the second-best quality of life in the world.
According to a survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, Vancouver ties Vienna for second place, behind top ranked Geneva and Zurich.
The annual survey grades 215 cities based on 39 criteria, including safety, public services, schools, climate and recreation.
Mercer prepares the survey for governments, companies and organizations looking to place employees on international assignments.
Vancouver is the top-ranked North American city, but the four other Canadian cities included in the survey, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Calgary, also made the top 10.
Vancouver is no stranger to the top ranks of the survey. It placed second both last year and in 2003, third in 2002, and ranked first in 2001 and 2000.
The survey uses New York City as a base case, assigning it a grade of 100. Because many cities receive the same numerical grade, tie scores are common. The 215 cities included in this year's survey are distributed to 109 ranks. New York City placed 13th.
The two Swiss cities tied for first place with grades of 106.5, edging out second place Vancouver and Vienna, which each scored 106.
The other Canadian cities weren't far behind, with Toronto in seventh spot with a score of 103.5, Ottawa ranking eighth at 103, Montreal in ninth at 102.5, and Calgary ranking tenth at 102.
The only other North American cities to crack the top 10 were Honolulu and San Francisco, which joined Calgary in the tenth position.
Baghdad was deemed the world's worst for quality of life, scoring a paltry 14.5 to capture 109th place.
Luxembourg won top honours in a special ranking of cities based on the quality of their personal safety and security. All five Canadian cities included in the survey tied for sixth in the safety list, making them the only North American cities in the top 10 of that category.
The safety rankings are based on internal stability, crime rates, the frequency of terrorist attacks, the quality of law enforcement, and the degree of personal freedoms.
so you have never been to Budapest??
that's the best place :D
cheap for almost every foreigners, beautiful chicks, great parties...who cares about the rest?
I like london, but thats the only major one ive been to, i went to paris a few weeks ago, but didnt even see the eiffel tower as i went to watch the football which is south of the city. I been to a few american cities, dont really like them, because their downtowns are just offices!
The world's greatest city is the one that stole your heart. For me it is London.
True, but I gave 2 examples of objective studies by the leading rating surveys that both came up with Vancouver at the best quality of life in the world. What other city can claim this?
There's a really nice coffee table book with the world's greatest cities out now; it's the Lonely Planet Cities Book. Really sweet pictures, and tons of info so you can decide for yourself.
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