Mercer, the global consultancy, published its annual “Quality of Life Survey” today, ranking 221 cities around the world on political, economic, environmental and public service factors, among others.
Perennial ‘best city ever’, Vienna came out on top of the 2012 list, with Zurich and Auckland rounding out the top three. Vancouver nabbed the number five spot, making it highest ranked city in North America. Honolulu ranked at number 28, earning the Hawaiian city the distinction of being the top ranked American city in the survey.
American cities that also make appearances on the list were San Francisco (29), Boston (35), Chicago (42), Washington, DC (43) and New York City (44). New York is the base city and is automatically assigned a score of 100.
Canadian cities fared better than their American neighbours, with Ottawa (14), Toronto (15), Montreal (23) and Calgary (32) joining Vancouver on the list.
According to Mercer, the cities with the lowest rankings were Port-au-Prince, Haiti (219), Bangui, Central African Republic (220) and Baghdad, Iraq (221).
