Vienna is the best city to live, London the 40th
mainThe annual Mercer rankings are out and Vienna comes top for the eighth year running as the best city in terms of quality of life, measured on public services, political climate and recreation (including arts).
London is 40th, New York 44th.
Here’s the top 20:
1 Vienna, Austria
2 Zurich, Switzerland
3 Auckland, New Zealand
4 Munich, Germany
5 Vancouver, Canada
6 Dusseldorf, Germany
7 Frankfurt. Germany
8 Geneva, Switzerland
9 Copenhagen, Denmark
10 Basel, Switzerland
10 Sydney, Australia
12 Amsterdam, Netherlands
13 Berlin, Germany
14 Bern, Switzerland
15 Wellington, New Zealand
16 Melbourne, Australia
16 Toronto, Canada
18 Ottawa, Canada
19 Hamburg, Germany
20 Stockholm, Sweden
High proportion here (NB I say proportion) of dull, expensive towns for dull wealthy people. Fairly clear that cuisine doesn’t play a large role in these rankings…and let’s not even get on to diversity…
I’m a very diverse person and was always perfectly left in peace in Vienna.
Fantastic variety of food in Vienna. There’s Syrian, Pakistani, Turkish and Argentinian wiring one minute”s walk where I am sitting
I don’t agree either with the ranking, but i’m not revealing my secret paradise for safety reasons.
I agree. Such sweet memories sitting at Schwarzenberg cafe in the same spot as this photo has been shot!!
Looks like the same cities that show up in every single issue of Monocle magazine or Tyler Brule’s FT column on Saturdays
Plenty diversity in Vancouver and Toronto. And lost of great grub — possibly for that very reason!
And in Vancouver, almost top-of-the-league when it comes to cost of living, hence the flood of people forced out of it. Without that wee factor taken into account, these tables mean nothing to the vast majority of people.
As dual citizens exiting the US, we opted for Victoria, BC, across the water from Vancouver. It’s still affordable, and the larger city is easily accessible via ferry. It does warm my heart to see three Canadian cities on the list!
How late do the Vancouver-Victoria ferries run, though?
Can you attend a performance in Vancouver and still catch the ferry back that night?
I don’t think it’s possible to get back to Victoria the same night; the ferry back is too far from DT Vancouver. We haven’t lived here long enough to try out a Vancouver junket, but some folks make an occasion of it and and stay over. With the real estate savings in hand, that would be my choice 🙂
Munich??!! They’ve GOT to be joking. Auckland has amongst the world’s very highest home prices.
Why? I find Munich a little boring as I am from Berlin and there is a whole lot more action there. But the quality of life is certainly very high. In terms of “classical music”, it’s a very good city with several great orchestras and a top opera house. The scenery around Munich is pretty good, too, it’s not that far to the Alps or even northern Italy or south eastern France if you need a change of scenery and culture and some nicer weather. Overall, really very good.
Many (maybe most) of the cities on this list have high home prices.
not right Vienna is still affordable and not so expensive as London or Paris which are places behind.
The Mercer report states that it is intended for use by multinational companies in compensating executives who work as expatriates.
For example, an executive from Vienna (ranked 1) who is required to work in London (ranked 40) would be eligible for “a quality-of-living or hardship allowance [that] compensates for a decrease in the quality of living between home and host locations.”
On the other hand, an executive from London who is required to work in Vienna would not receive a quality-of-living allowance. Working as an expatriate in a higher-ranking city is not a hardship, at least from a quality-of-life standpoint.
Did they consider weather in the rankings?
I can’t help thinking that’s why Melbourne is so far down – next to Wellington, windiest city on earth.
This is the first time I can remember seeing on of these lists that ranked Sydney ahead of Melbourne, let alone so far.
Lovely places all, but I rank cities on how many opera performances they have every month, as that’s my personal quality of life indicator. Perhaps Vienna would still be top, although London, Paris, Berlin Prague, Budapest and Moscow would be close behind. A person of culture would surely prefer my little list.
Most definitely!
You should go ahead and publish. My retirement is looming and I’d like to get my bucket/travel list prepared of places to visit.
I believe Vienna does more opera than anywhere else. As for the list as a whole, have the authors been in Frankfurt on a Sunday?
Berlin has – three – big opera houses. That should answer your question.
I bet Lviv and Tbilisi aren’t in your list.
Vienna. A phoney tourist Disneyland with zero character.
I’ll be so happy to leave soon after many years.
You lived there for many years, but you never learned enough German to get under the thin touristy surface and explore the diversity and richness of Vienna’s cultural life? That’s pretty sad. It’s probably better if you leave and settle somewhere where you are more at home with your provincial mindset. Maybe Kansas or Wisconsin, or wherever you are from.
very good answer eheh
In its own way, Vienna is also very privincial. Its culture – especially its music culture of course – is on a very high level, but the cultivation of its superior self-image means that things outside the city are often seen with a suspicious eye, and internal things are run with the intention to keep everything as much as possible ‘among ourselves’ which hinders injections of new life and new absorbtion. The city is very open to foreigners, but that is on the consumer side. One of the reasons of this mentality is the erosion of tradition everywhere else in the Western world, so one can understand the suspicion as a reaction to protect a precious cultural asset. But it can also result in a locked-in situation. It is a difficult position to be in.
Don’t let the door hit your back too hard
Best City to Live in for White German and English Speaking Middle Class and Middle Age People Who Read Fifty Shades of Gray for Excitement
White German, English speaking middle class….in general
that describes nicely the opera community and the clientele of this web site.
Not one US city on the list. No not one.
Three cheers for Vienna!
“Not one US city in the list.”
Well, since the list rankings are based on public services and political climate, it makes sense that no U.S. cities are in the top 20.
“for people who read Fifty Shades of Grey”.. so the best cities for unhappy, sexually frustrated, suburban soccer moms with unrealistic expectations about relationships?