Mercer's 2011 Quality of Living ranking highlights - Global

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• European cities dominate worldwide Quality of Living ranking, with cities in Australia, New Zealand and Canada also ranked highly. Singapore is the first Asian city in the Top 25, at 25.

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• Vienna is No. 1 in the Quality of Living ranking.

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• Luxembourg tops our Personal Safety ranking, with Bern and Helsinki following.

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• Baghdad has the lowest quality of living among the 221 cities we ranked and is also last in the Personal Safety ranking.

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In 2011, the world continued to experience instability due to the enduring economic crisis. Economic uncertainty helped provoke social and political unrest of varying degrees in many urban areas. Protests and strikes in numerous North American and Western European cities have been largely peaceful. But violence – and, in places, civil war – have broken out in other regions, endangering the safety of both locals and expatriates.

The events of the “Arab Spring” of 2011, when citizens took to the streets to demand regime change in many North African and Middle Eastern countries, have lasted long past spring. Uncertainty continues in Tripoli, Libya, following the death of the country’s former leader, Muammar Qaddafi. And Cairo is still experiencing waves of violence through the fall of 2011, as the government clashes with protesters.
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Some of this region’s cities, including Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and Muscat, Oman, rank quite high in personal safety, mainly due to their internal stability and low crime levels.

Even generally calmer regions have suffered civil disorder. Large protests, some of which were violent, broke out several times this year in Santiago, Chile, in support of higher government involvement and subsidies for education. The threat of economic collapse and resulting austerity measures in Greece brought on repeated violent clashes between street protesters and police in Athens, Greece.

These significant challenges to the security of expatriates and local residents in many locations led Mercer to choose personal safety as the special topic of its 2011 rankings.

Those cities and countries that have escaped the brunt of social unrest and economic downturn have been able to continue investing in urban infrastructure and other provisions for comfortable and enjoyable daily living to improve the quality of living for their residents. If economic and political instability remain a global factor, cities in parts of Asia-Pacific and Western Europe, as well as in Canada, will continue to benefit from their relative stability and wealth of public services and recreational provisions, becoming more attractive destinations for expatriate employees.

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Top 5 cities worldwide [TABLE="class: BodyText, align: center"]
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[TD]Top 5 cities: Quality of living ranking[/TD]
[TD]Top 5 cities: Personal safety ranking[/TD]
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• Vienna, Austria (1st)
• Zurich, Switzerland (2nd)
• Auckland, New Zealand (3rd)
• Munich, Germany (4th)
• Vancouver, Canada (tied 5th)
• Düsseldorf, Germany (tied 5th)

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• Luxembourg, Luxembourg(1st)
• Bern, Switzerland (tied 2nd)
• Helsinki, Finland (tied 2nd)
• Zurich, Switzerland (tied 2nd)
• Vienna, Austria (5th)

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Top 5 cities by region Quality of living ranking [TABLE="class: BodyText"]
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[TD]Americas[/TD]
[TD]Asia Pacific[/TD]
[TD]Europe[/TD]
[TD="width: 25%, bgcolor: #e7f3ff"]Middle East & Africa[/TD]
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• Vancouver (5th)
• Ottawa (14th)
• Toronto (15th)
• Montreal (22nd)
• Honolulu (29th)

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• Auckland (3rd)
• Sydney (11th)
• Wellington (13th)
• Melbourne (18th)
• Perth (21st)

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• Vienna (1st)
• Zurich (2nd)
• Munich (4th)
• Dusseldorf (5th)
• Frankfurt (7th)

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• Dubai (74th)
• Abu Dhabi (78th)
• Port Louis (82nd)
• Cape Town (88th)
• Johannesburg (94th)

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Personal safety ranking [TABLE="class: BodyText, align: center"]
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[TD]Americas[/TD]
[TD]Asia Pacific[/TD]
[TD]Europe[/TD]
[TD="width: 25%"]Middle East & Africa[/TD]
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• Calgary (tied 17th)
• Montreal (tied 17th)
• Ottawa (tied 17th)
• Toronto (tied 17th)
• Vancouver (tied 17th)

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• Singapore (8th)
• Auckland (tied 9th)
• Wellington (tied 9th)
• Canberra (tied 25th)
• Melbourne (tied 25th)
• Perth (tied 25th)
• Sydney (tied 25th)

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• Luxembourg (1st)
• Bern (tied 2nd)
• Helsinki (tied 2nd)
• Zurich (tied 2nd)
• Vienna (5th)

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• Abu Dhabi (23rd)
• Muscat (29th)
• Dubai(39th)
• Port Louis (59th)
• Doha (67th)

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http://www.mercer.com/qualityofliving

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