The 2007 Worldwide Quality of Living Survey has revealed that Zurich again ranks as the world's top city…

The survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting reveals that cities in Europe, Australia and New Zealand continue to dominate the top end of the rankings for overall quality of living.

With a rating of 108.1, Zurich narrowly out-ranks Geneva, which scores 108. Vancouver and Vienna follow in joint third place and score 107.7.

Auckland and Düsseldorf share joint fifth place and score 107.3 points. Frankfurt and Munich follow with scores of 107.1 and 106.9 respectively. Bern and Sydney both score 106.5 points and share joint 9th place.

The analysis is based on an evaluation of 39 criteria for each city including political, social, economic and environmental factors, personal safety and health, education, transport and other public services.

Asia Pacific rankings ‘relatively unchanged’

The rankings for cities in Asia Pacific remain relatively unchanged from 2006. Singapore (34th position) remains one position ahead of Tokyo and 36 positions ahead of Hong Kong, which slipped from 68th position to 70th position.

Both Shanghai and Beijing have moved up, from 103rd to 100th and 121st to 116th position respectively. Although Indian cities still remain quite far down in the rankings, New Delhi has improved its position by two places, now ranking 148th position (with a score of 62.4).

Japanese cities top for ‘overall quality of living’

Mr. Slagin Parakatil, senior researcher at Mercer observed:

"Japanese cities remain amongst the top for overall quality of living, with an excellent infrastructure, political and economical stability. Singapore, the leading Asian city for quality of living overall also scores extremely well due to numerous expatriate facilities and transportation".

Mr Parakatil added: "Chinese cities, especially Beijing and Shanghai continue to improve much faster than some other cities in the country. Public transport, telecommunication and airports have dramatically improved".

Gap widening

Baghdad remains the world's least enticing city for expatriates with a score of 14.5. Other low-scoring cities for overall quality of living include Brazzaville in Congo (29.5), Bangui in the Central African Republic (30.6) and Khartoum in Sudan (31).

Mr Parakatil concluded:  "In recent years, the gap between low-ranking and high-ranking cities has widened. While standards have improved in some regions, there remains a stark contrast between those cities where overall quality of living is good and those experiencing political and economic turmoil."