The 2004 Quality of Living Survey of Mercer Human Resource Consulting established a ranking with Best Cities to Live in for Expatriate Workers. Five out of first six cities are Canadian, with Ottawa, the national capital, topping the list. It is followed by Vancouver and Calgary.

As expected, countries open to a large number of immigrants (such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand) performed best. From Europe, a special mention for Germany (with five cities in top 20). From US, only Honolulu appears in the list. Ranking is based on a derived index, in which both the quality of living index and the cost of living index have been included. Continue reading »

The 2007 Quality of Living Survey of Mercer Human Resource Consulting also provides a Health and Sanitation Ranking, with the top 50 cities in the world. According to this survey, Calgary (Canada) ranks first, followed by Honolulu (USA) and Helsinki (Finland).

The ranking considered basically factors for healthcare and quality of living: availability of affordable hospital services and medical supplies, absence or treatement of infectious diseases, water potability, troublesome and destructive animals/insects, waste removal, sewage and air quality, pollution. Continue reading »

The 2007 Quality of Living Survey of Mercer Human Resource Consulting places Zurich on the top spot, followed by another city of Switzerland, Geneva, the Canadian Vancouver sharing the third place with Vienna (Austria).

The quality-of-living rating has been established based on 39 factors. How welcome expatriates feel in these cities has been a major factor. This is also why you will find here plenty of cities from well economically developed countries that receive immigrants, such as Canada, Australia or New Zealand. Continue reading »

The 2008 Quality of Living Survey of Mercer Human Resource Consulting also provides a Ranking by Personal Safety, with the top 50 cities in the world. According to this survey, Luxembourg ranks first, followed by Helsinki (Finland) and three cities of Switzerland (Bern, Geneva and Zurich), all last four tied for the second place.

The survey identified those cities with the highest personal safety ranking based on relationships with other countries, internal stability, crime and effectiveness of law enforcement. Continue reading »

The 2008 Quality of Living Survey of Mercer Human Resource Consulting places again Zurich on the top spot, followed by another city of Switzerland, Geneva, which shares the second place with Vienna (Austria). At the top, thing are somehow similar to the 2007 ranking for quality of living: Vienna is the city which slightly moved up, but still being closely followed by the Canadian Vancouver.

The quality-of-living rating has been established based on 39 factors. It is important to remark that how welcome expatriates are feeling in these cities has been a major factor. Continue reading »