Tuesday 28 April 2009

Mercer Quality of Living Index 2009 

Mercer Consulting, the leading human resource and compensation consulting firm, has annouced 2009 Quality of Living Index.

Mercer has analyzed 420 cities worldwide and indexed each cities and used New York City as bench mark (100).

Its methodology is:

- Political and Social environment
- Economy environment
- Cultural environment
- Health and Cleanness
- Educational environment
- Infrastructure
- Recreation
- Consumer goods avaiablity
- Living environment
- Natural environment

Because of it, this index has the following tendancies (in my opinion).

1) Mid sized cities does better than large cities.
2) "Cold" weather places tend to do better.
3) Non-American cities with lots of expats tend to do better.
4) English speaking cities tend to do better.
5) After all, it is ranking for expats with family -- not for everyone.

Here is the ranking of Top 50 cities.

- European (especially in Switzerland and Germany) and Canadian cities dominate top 20 cities.

- Top 5 in USA is Honolulu, San Francisco, Boston, Portland and Washington DC.

- While it is not listed in below ranking, the worst city is Baghdad with 14. If you are sent to Baghdad, make sure that you demand at least 6 times of your current salary for your "hardship"!

Mercer Quality of Living Survey - Worldwide Rankings, 2009
Base City: New York, USA (=100)
Rank Rank City Country QoL Index 2009 QoL Index 2008
2009 2008
1 2 Vienna Austria 108.6 107.9
2 1 Zurich Switzerland 108.0 108.0
3 2 Geneva Switzerland 107.9 107.9
4 4 Vancouver Canada 107.4 107.6
4 5 Auckland New Zealand 107.4 107.3
6 6 Dusseldorf Germany 107.2 107.2
7 7 Munich Germany 107.0 107.0
8 7 Frankfurt Germany 106.8 107.0
9 9 Bern Switzerland 106.5 106.5
10 10 Sydney Australia 106.3 106.3
11 11 Copenhagen Denmark 106.2 106.2
12 12 Wellington New Zealand 105.9 105.8
13 13 Amsterdam Netherlands 105.7 105.7
14 14 Brussels Belgium 105.4 105.4
15 15 Toronto Canada 105.3 105.3
16 19 Ottawa Canada 105.0 104.7
16 16 Berlin Germany 105.0 105.0
18 17 Melbourne Australia 104.8 104.8
19 17 Luxembourg Luxembourg 104.6 104.8
20 20 Stockholm Sweden 104.5 104.5
21 21 Perth Australia 104.3 104.3
22 22 Montreal Canada 104.2 104.2
23 23 Nurnberg Germany 104.1 104.1
24 24 Oslo Norway 103.7 103.7
25 25 Dublin Ireland 103.6 103.5
26 32 Singapore Singapore 103.5 102.9
26 25 Calgary Canada 103.5 103.5
28 27 Hamburg Germany 103.4 103.4
29 28 Honolulu United States 103.1 103.1
30 29 San Francisco United States 103.0 103.0
30 29 Helsinki Finland 103.0 103.0
30 29 Adelaide Australia 103.0 103.0
33 32 Paris France 102.9 102.9
34 34 Brisbane Australia 102.4 102.4
35 35 Tokyo Japan 102.2 102.2
35 37 Boston United States 102.2 101.8
37 36 Lyon France 101.9 101.9
38 38 Yokohama Japan 101.6 101.6
38 38 London United Kingdom 101.6 101.6
40 40 Kobe Japan 100.9 100.9
41 41 Milan Italy 100.8 100.8
42 48 Portland United States 100.6 100.2
42 42 Barcelona Spain 100.6 100.6
44 44 Washington United States 100.3 100.3
44 44 Osaka Japan 100.3 100.3
44 44 Lisbon Portugal 100.3 100.3
44 44 Chicago United States 100.3 100.3
48 43 Madrid Spain 100.2 100.5
49 49 New York City United States 100.0 100.0
50 50 Seattle United States 99.8 99.8

For your reference, below is Top 5 Cities by the regions.

Top 5 cities - Americas
- Vancouver, Canada (tied 4th)
- Toronto, Canada (15th)
- Ottawa, Canada (16th)
- Montreal, Canada (22nd)
- Calgary, Canada (26th)

Top 5 cities - Asia Pacific
- Auckland, New Zealand (tied 4th)
- Sydney, Australia (10th)
- Wellington, New Zealand (12th)
- Melbourne, Australia (18th)
- Perth, Australia (21st)

Top 5 cities - Europe
- Vienna, Austria ( 1st)
- Zurich, Switzerland (2nd)
- Geneva, Switzerland (3rd)
- Dusseldorf, Germany (6th)
- Munich, Germany (7th)

Top 5 cities - Middle East & Africa
- Dubai, United Arab Emirates (77th)
- Port Louis, Mauritius (82nd)
- Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (84th)
- Cape Town, South Africa (87th)
- Port Elizabeth, South Africa (93rd)

While this is index does not have direct relationship with real estate price, it is good data to know. This index also indicate that, if you want to balance work and life, it is your best bet to get out of mega cities like New York, Tokyo or London and settle at mid-size cities.

Happy Investing!!!!

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