The Best, Worst Places to Live?
 

The Best, Worst Places to Live?
By Jason Hopps

LONDON (Reuters) - The Swiss city of Zurich edged out Vancouver, Canada, and the Austrian capital of Vienna to top a quality of life survey published on Monday, with impoverished, war-torn African cities dominating the bottom ranks.

Baghdad, the Iraqi capital where residents are preparing for a possible U.S.-led war, placed 213th of the 215 cities studied.

The study handed the crown to Zurich based on 39 criteria ranging from political, social and economic factors that also included the quality of health, education and transport services.

Zurich, which is surrounded by picturesque scenery, also claimed top spot in last year's survey of cities, commissioned by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

Vancouver, nestled between mountains and ocean on Canada's Pacific coast, and historic Vienna ranked a joint second, followed by Geneva and Sydney, Australia.

Auckland, Copenhagen, the German cities of Frankfurt and Munich and the Swiss capital, Berne, all tied for fifth spot.

At the other end of the table, Congo's Brazzaville and Bangui in the Central African Republic were judged to have the worst quality of life.

The top-rated city in the United States was San Francisco, which placed 20th, down from 18th last year.

"The gap between cities at the top and bottom of the table is still large," said Slagin Parakatil, a senior researcher at Mercer.

"Economic and political unrest in Africa and Latin America has pushed many cities down in the rankings this year," he said. "It will take time for many of those African cities to recover from such prolonged periods of political and economic turmoil and to re-establish stable, law-enforcing democracies."

In the study, conducted between September and November 2002, New York City was given a base score of 100 for quality of life. It was ranked 44th on the list.

By contrast, Zurich topped the poll with a score of 106.5 and Brazzaville finished at 215 and last with 28.5 points.

Other notable cities included Amsterdam at 10th spot, Tokyo at 26, London at 39, Los Angeles at 53 and Rome at 66th.

Lower down the table, Athens finished at 79, Istanbul at 91, Rio De Janeiro at 108, Jerusalem at 126, New Delhi at 162 and Havana, Cuba, at 189.

African cities occupied 17 of the bottom 20 spots.

In a related survey also by Mercer, Luxembourg scored the highest for personal safety, followed closely by Berne, Geneva, Helsinki, Singapore and Zurich.

Milan, Athens and Rome were judged the least safe cities in western Europe while Washington got the worst safety ranking in the United States.

They forgot to mention Albuquerque, NM as one of the worst places to live.

Vancouver is simply amazing!!:thumbsup

bahamas the best and Etiopia the worst:thumbsup

Yup..It doesnt snow here like back east and the pot is one of the best in the world..and our hockey team is going to win the cup...Go Canucks :)

I am surprised that Rio de Jenerio did not get any mentions. I lived there for a year and I think I am planning on going back !

And you guys wonder why I moved out here huh? I am sitting with my balcony door wide open watching sailboats on the ocean. This is in fucking March! Do you know what the weather is like in Toronto right now? LOL!

Viva la Vancouver!

DH

#1 U.S. City: San Francisco!!!

Lower down the table, Athens finished at 79, Istanbul at 91, Rio De Janeiro at 108, Jerusalem at 126, New Delhi at 162 and Havana, Cuba, at 189.

My top 3 would be:

Sydney, Australia

Vancouver, Canada

Honolulu, Hawaii

Not bad for a small country like The Netherlands:)

Andre

My personal top 3:

Oak Harbor, WA

Seattle WA

Vancouver BC



Top 3 most disliked:

Carthage, TN

Cookeville TN

Meridian MS

Where was Prague?

Not that we live there.

Anywhere with Eva is the best place in the world for me.:helpme

Pretty good.....I spent a few summers in Amsterdam, and would definitely rate it highly except for the weather. It seems to rain a lot even in the summer.

My Top 5 cities:

San Francisco
Barcelona
Santa Barbara, CA
London
Coast of Liguria, Italy

I've heard great things about Prague and also Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. But, I've yet to make it to those cities, so I don't know how I'd yet rank them.

If I could live in Amsterdam I would be in Amsterdam. I love your city. Just need to warm it up a bit and keep some of the tourists out. :) Damn that's me a tourist, what a conflict.

Well that's the bad part. We have more rain in the summer then in winter..So when you want dry weather, come to us in the winter :)

Andre

San Francsico rules!!

That's a trip, but now that I think of it your right. I've been to Amsterdam a couple of times during late winter/early spring thinking the weather would be horrible (considering the summers I spent there) and the weather was better than summer.

I guess that's not too different than San fran. SF is nicest in the Spring and Fall. July and August usually suck. It's usually windy and foggy. It's been in the 60s (16 - 18 celsius) here for awhile and it's still winter. It will keep getting nicer until about mid-June, and then it will get cold again until September.

I live in the Netherlands and I like it here. It's the most 'western' country in Europe, considering UK, France and Germany are extreme nationalistic pigs (ok that was a little harsh maybe), Holland is more international.

Plus weed and prostitution are legal, not a lot of crime either and it's located in the center of europe.

Are you missing the caipirinha ?

No way! How did I miss it?? I've been to A'dam at least 5 or 6 times and not once did I see any illicit activities like weed and prostitution. Are you sure? You're pulling our legs aren't you...I must have been on the wrong tour. All I saw were windmills and girls wearing clogs (sp?). hehe

:drinkup :rasta :stoned

The bronx is the worst place to live..

But I love IT!!

Auckland, Copenhagen, the German cities of Frankfurt and Munich and the Swiss capital, Berne, all tied for fifth spot.


that should be 6th spot, but people in UK must not know how to count.

Oh common :-) Copenhagen, Denmark was 5th :-) It's 1/3 of the size of The Netherlands haha...