Dubai 2009 Rank (75)

Vienna Rank (1)

In a new survey of the world’s best cities, Dubai is the only Middle east country enters in the top 75. So, where are the best places to live?

Vienna has again been named as the ‘best’ city in the world, with the Austrian capital’s perennial Swiss rivals, Zurich and Geneva, following close behind. Vancouver and Auckland retain last year’s joint 4th positions. Overall,German-speaking cities occupy six places in the top ten in this year’s Quality of Living Survey by Mercer Consulting.

This year’s ranking also identifies the cities with the best eco-ranking based on water availability and drinkability, waste removal, quality of sewage systems, air pollution and traffic congestion. Calgary is at the top of this index (score 145.7), followed by Honolulu in second place (score 145.1) and Ottawa and Helsinki in joint third (score 139.9). Wellington in New Zealand (5), Minneapolis (6), Adelaide (7) and Copenhagen fill the next four slots, while Kobe, Oslo and Stockholm share ninth place. Port-au-Prince in Haiti ranks at the bottom of this table with a score of only 27.8.

Mercer said that a high-ranking eco-city optimised its use of renewable energy sources and generated the lowest possible quantity of pollution (air, water, noise, etc). “A city’s eco-status or attitude toward sustainability can have significant impact on the quality of living of its inhabitants. As a consequence these are also pertinent issues for companies that send employees and their families on long-term assignments abroad, especially considering the vast majority of expatriates are relocated to urban areas,” the researchers added

What makes a great city?

The 2010 report is now out, covering 221 of the world’s capital and major cities. The firm’s worldwide rankings are produced using 39 factors in ten categories, including:

• 1. Political and social environment (political stability, crime, law enforcement)
• 2. Economic environment (currency-exchange regulations, banking services)
• 3. Socio-cultural environment (censorship, limitations on personal freedom)
• 4. Health and sanitation (medical supplies and services, infectious diseases, sewage, waste disposal, air pollution)
• 5. Schools and education (standard and availability of international schools)
• 6. Public services and transportation (electricity, water, public transport, traffic congestion)
• 7. Recreation (restaurants, theatres, cinemas, sports and leisure)
• 8. Consumer goods (availability of food/daily consumption items, cars)
• 9. Housing (housing, household appliances, furniture, maintenance services)
• 10. Natural environment (climate, record of natural disasters

The world’s top cities offering the best quality of life
(New York City is the base city with a score of 100 points)

Research by Mercer Consulting

Middle East and Africa

Dubai (75) in the United Arab Emirates and Port Louis in Mauritius (82) are the region’s cities with the best quality of living. Abu Dhabi (83), Cape Town (86) and Tunis (94) follow and are, along with Victoria in the Seychelles (95), Johannesburg (96) and Muscat in Oman (100), the region’s only other cities in the top 100. Following the revision of the index a selection of cities from this region has been added, including Doha in Qatar (110), Rabat in Morocco (112), Banjul in Gambia (164) and Abuja in Nigeria (205).

Baghdad (221) remains at the bottom of the table, though its index score has increased slightly (from 14.4 to 14.7 in 2010). A lack of security and stability continue to have a negative impact on Baghdad’s quality of living and its score remains far behind that of Bangui (27.4) in the Central African Republic which is second to last.

In the eco-city index, most of the region’s cities rank below 100. The highest-ranking cities are Cape Town (30), Victoria (38), Muscat (48), Johannesburg (54) and Abu Dhabi and Dubai (in joint 65). Antananarivo in Madagascar (217) is at the bottom of the list with an eco-city score of 39.7, while Baghdad is at 214, scoring 40.5.

‘Greenest’ cities
In an innovation in the 2010 report, Mercer include a second table named
Eco-ranking. It assesses the same 221 cities on different criteria. These are water availability, water potability, waste removal, sewage, air pollution and traffic congestion.

North American cities dominate the top ten led by Calgary, Honolulu and Ottawa. Nurnberg and Zurich are the only non-Nordic European cities in the leading 20.

This contrasts sharply with other published comparisons of sustainable or green cities. It is probably explained by the emphasis on congestion in transport rather than modal share and the absence of density as a factor

http://www.citymayors.com/features/quality_survey.html

http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/27052010/389/best-cities-world-live.html