hershie

Then have a look at this survey by Mercer: "The survey uses New York City as a base case, assigning it a grade of 100. New York City placed 13th."


Vancouver No. 2 City In The 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; four other Canadian cities make it into the top 10.

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.