الرئيسية
A banner with a symbol of blind people, is fixed to St.
Stephen's Cathedral (Stephansdom) in Vienna October 13, 2011.
REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
By Reuters
VIENNA (Reuters) - Vienna's excellent infrastructure, safe
streets and good public health service make it the nicest place to live
in the world, consulting group Mercer said in a global survey which put
Baghdad firmly in last place.
German and Swiss cities also
performed especially well in the quality of living rankings, with
Zurich, Munich, Duesseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva and Bern in the top 10.
The
Austrian capital, with its ornate buildings, public parks and extensive
bicycle network recently reduced the cost of its annual public
transport ticket to 1 euro a day.
Serious crime is rare and the city of around 1.7 million inhabitants regularly tops global quality of life surveys.
But
Mercer warned that top-ranking European cities could not take their
position for granted in the survey, which assessed more than 200 cities.
"They
are not immune to any decrease of living standards should this
(economic) turmoil persist," Mercer's senior researcher Slagin Parakatil
said on the company's website.
Mercer, which also ranked cities
according to personal safety, gave Athens a poor score because of
clashes between demonstrators and police and political instability.
"In 2011 Athens is ranked in Europe among the lowest in the personal safety ranking," Parakatil said.
Oslo
also fell to 24th place in the separate safety survey because of Anders
Breivik's mass killings in July. It would usually be in the top 15,
Mercer said.
Baghdad's political turmoil, poor security
enforcement and attacks on local people and foreigners made it the worst
place to live in 2011, both in terms of life quality and safety, Mercer
said.
Political and economic unrest in Africa and the Middle East also pushed down scores in those regions.
"Many
countries such as Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen have seen their
quality of living levels drop considerably," Parakatil said.
"Political
and economic reconstruction in these countries, combined with funding
to serve basic human needs, will undoubtedly boost the region."
He
said that while the outlook is uncertain for most of the world because
of economic and political turmoil, cities in Asia-Pacific look set to
benefit thanks to political stability and solid growth.
Auckland,
Sydney, Wellington, Melbourne and Perth made it into the top 20 for
quality of life in 2011 while Singapore was the highest-ranking Asian
city in 25th place.
Top 10 in Mercer Quality of Living survey
1 Vienna Austria
2 Zurich Switzerland
3 Auckland New Zealand
4 Munich Germany
5 Duesseldorf Germany
5 Vancouver Canada
7 Frankfurt Germany
8 Geneva Switzerland
9 Bern Switzerland
10 Copenhagen Denmark
http://www.mercer.com/qualityoflivingpr#city-rankings
(Reporting by Sylvia Westall)