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Highlights from the 2011 Quality of Living Survey

European cities dominate worldwide quality of living rankings
Vienna ranks highest for quality of living; Baghdad, the lowest
Luxembourg ranks highest for personal safety; Baghdad, the lowest

Vienna has the best living standard in the world, according to the Mercer 2011 Quality of Living Survey. Zurich and Auckland follow in second and third position, respectively, and Munich is in fourth, with Düsseldorf and Vancouver sharing fifth place. European cities represent over half the cities amongst the top 25 in the ranking.

Globally, the cities with the lowest quality of living are Khartoum, Sudan (217), Port-au-Prince, Haiti (218), N’Djamena, Chad (219), and Bangui, Central African Republic (220). Baghdad, Iraq (221) ranks last in Mercer’s table.

Mercer conducts the survey to help governments and multi-national companies compensate employees fairly when placing them on international assignments. Mercer’s Quality of Living index list covers 221 cities, ranked against New York as the base city.

This year, the survey separately identifies those cities with the highest personal safety ranking based on internal stability, crime levels, law enforcement effectiveness and the host country’s international relations. Luxembourg tops this personal safety ranking, followed by Bern, Helsinki and Zurich – all ranked at number two. Baghdad (221) is the world’s least safe city.

Slagin Parakatil, Senior Researcher at Mercer, commented: “The top-ranking cities for personal safety and security are in politically stable countries with good international relations and relatively sustainable economic growth. Most of the low-scoring cities are in countries with civil unrest, high crime levels and little law enforcement.”

Read more from the Press Release
29 November 2011

Slagin Parakatil discusses the Quality of Living Survey results for 2011

“Top-ranking cities continue to have high standards of living because they enjoy advanced urban infrastructures combined with modern medical, recreational, and leisure facilities. But the current economic turmoil, high levels of unemployment, and lack of confidence in political institutions make their future positions hard to predict.

Many cities in Europe and North America and a few in the Pacific still fare particularly well in both the quality of living and personal safety rankings, yet they are not immune from decreases in living standards if this uncertainty persists.”

Quality of Living Reports

Key features and benefits

Based on 39 factors within ten categories, Mercer’s Quality of Living Reports contain all the key elements you need to calculate hardship allowances for transfers to over 420 cities worldwide.

“Hardship allowance” refers to premium compensation paid to expatriates who experience – or should expect to experience – a significant deterioration in living conditions in their new host location.

Our reports are based on the Mercer’s annual Quality of Living Survey. The survey questionnaire is developed by international Mercer professionals, working closely with major multinational companies and other experts in the field.

Tangible values for qualitative perceptions to establish an objective assessment of the quality of living for transfers to over 420 cities worldwide.
Carefully selected factors representing the criteria considered most relevant to international executives.
A detailed outline of how Mercer establishes quality of living differentials between cities.
A City-to-City Index Comparison that summarizes the difference in the quality of living between any two cities.
The Quality of Living index for the city and access to a detailed breakdown of the category scores that form the resulting index.
Our online Quality-of-Living Calculator that allows you to customize the Quality of Living index to your specific needs.
A score report summarizing the Quality of Living differences for each of the 39 factors.
Mercer’s recommended Quality of Living Allowance Grid that allows you to translate the quality of living index into percentage benefits and define competitive hardship allowances where applicable.

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