Where you choose to live can affect the type of job you have, how much you get paid and how much you spend. Settling down is a big decision. Making that decision a little easier, Mercer has released its 18th annual Quality of Living Survey. Western Europe dominates the top 10:
- Vienna, Austria
- Zurich, Switzerland
- Auckland, New Zealand
- Munich, Germany
- Vancouver, Canada
- Dusseldorf, Germany
- Frankfurt, Germany
- Geneva, Switzerland
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Sydney, Australia
Even looking at just North America, the United States falls short with four of the top five spots belonging to Canadian cities. San Francisco is the first to hit the list at 28, followed by Boston (34), Honolulu (35), Chicago (43), New York City (44) and Seattle (46).
The bottom five cities are:
- Khartoum, Sudan
- Port-au-Prince, Haiti
- Sana’a, Yemen Arab Republic
- Bangui, Central African Republic
- Baghdad, Iraq
Mercer evaluates 39 factors, including political and social environment, economic environment, sociocultural environment, medical and health, schools and education, public services and transportation, and housing and consumer goods.
With my husband recently joining the military, we have been thinking a lot about where we would like to be stationed if given the choice. I was happy to see our first choice — Frankfurt — ranked seventh on Mercer’s list; however, none of our stateside choices — Las Vegas; Santa Barbara, Calif.; Denver; Boise, Idaho; Norfolk, Va.; and Spokane, Wash. — made the list at all.
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Zoë Wolff is a reporter with Institutional Real Estate, Inc.
