Mercer’s annual ranking of the world’s “most liveable cities” is out. Vienna took the top spot. But Swiss cities do very well with Zurich and Geneva taking the second and third spots, with Bern in 9th.
Canada does well too - with Vancouver fourth, Toronto 15th, Ottawa 19th, Montreal 22nd and Calgary tied with Singapore for 26th.
Australia and New Zealand punch above their weight – Auckland is fifth, Sydney 10th, Wellington 12th, Melbourne 17th, Perth 21st, Adelaide 30th, and Brisbane 34th.
Germany has four cities in the top 20, Dusseldorf is sixth, Munich seventh, Frankfurt eighth, and Berlin 16th; plus, Nuremberg 23rd, Hamburg 28th, .
Scandinavian and Nordic cities do reasonably well – Copenhagen is 11th, Stockholm 20th, Oslo 24th, and Helsinki 30th .
The ”Am-Brus-Twerp” mega-region has two top-20 cities – Amsterdam at 13th, and Brussels 14th.
Below are the top 20 and here is the full list:
For comparison purposes, here’s my own list of the world’s top 20 city-regions based on our measure of economic output derived from satellite images of the world at night.
Two things stand out.
First, the world’s biggest city regions are not necessarily the “most liveable,” at least according to the Mercer criteria. Tokyo is 35th on the Mercer rankings, London 38th, and NYC 49th just inching into the top 50 worldwide.
Second, American cities get creamed (again). Honolulu at 29th is the top-rated American city, followed by San Francisco 30th, Boston 35th, Portland 41st, D.C. and Chicago tied for 44th, New York 49th, and Seattle 50th. L.A. fails to make it into the top 50.
While I find such lists informative and fun, in my book Who’s Your City, I say that there is really no such thing as a single best city: Invoking the old and somewhat cliched adage, “different strokes for different folks,” I argue the thing that really matters is to find location that best fits you.
So, how does this list jibe with your own list of the world’s best cities? And, most of all, which city is the one that seems best for you?
May 8th, 2009 at 7:46 am
If only I could speak german, I would deffinetely live in Bonn. It’s cosy, small, but close to big cities like Köln. Also it’s not so far from other Europien countries.. Just great city!
Amsterdam would be the second best.
May 8th, 2009 at 9:17 am
It’s all about the selection of indicators and how they are measured. Obviously, the Mercer list does use the same indicators as how bright a city is at night.
May 8th, 2009 at 9:18 am
I’m not surprised the top 25 has no American cities. Having grown up in the US I can say that it is a great place for economic growth but I wouldn’t want to live there. The cities of the United States have generally terrible social equity and poor infrastructure. A few European cities come to mind when I think of a massive divide between rich and poor (Paris for one) but they aren’t on that list either. Hence my move to the University of British Columbia this fall.
May 8th, 2009 at 10:47 am
The Economist publishes a similar list, where Vancouver is consistently #1.
May 8th, 2009 at 11:07 am
That should be “does not use”.
May 8th, 2009 at 11:39 am
I can’t tell from the article what the population limitation is on a city to be considered for ranking. Anyone know?
May 8th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
I’m pretty surprised that Stockholm ranked below Ottawa, having lived in the latter for seven years and having moved to Sweden from there (granted, well outside Stockholm). While cost of living probably plays the largest role in this, I didn’t find Ottawa’s housing options very cheap, and public transit and infrastructure in the two cities can’t compare. Stockholm feels like a city; Ottawa seems to wish to continue to shun that title, and seems content to be a place with a lot of people that’s not really a city. Though I recognize that the five days I’ve spent in Stockholm is not enough to judge it adequately.
Maybe in the end, it’s simply that Ottawa wasn’t my city, at least, not at this time. And I’ll agree with you that different cities make it up the list, depending on what appeals to you.
That said, it seems that one should learn German if they want to live in the best cities, which I can believe, and have been considering following up on.
So far, Berlin is at the top my list of cities, because of the vibe, the history, the ease of access, and the reasonable costs. But I have only been to one of the top nine, so I am not positioned to judge.
May 8th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
It would be interesting to compare this list with creative class cities, also with interesting/ exciting cities. Zurich may be liveable but dull compared to NYC or London, for example. I looked back at “Flight” and there’s a ranking of countries but not world creative class cities.
For my hometown Portland, it’s probably ranked about right given its size, and tied with Barcelona ain’t bad.
June 10th, 2009 at 3:58 am
I am surprised not to find cities like Singapore or Hong Kong. Any ideas on why they are not in the list? After living and working in Germany for the last 5 years, I can strongly say that German cities are great when it comes to infrastructure (not only the cities mentioned in the list). Though one sure needs to know the language to really get around, truly enjoy the city and bond with the people.
February 25th, 2011 at 12:29 am
The cities of the United States have generally terrible social equity and poor infrastructure.
———————————
huh? there are plenty of very livable cities in america and I’m really surprised that none of them are on the list.
The one trend that I’ve noticed between the cities on this list is that they’re all somewhat mid-sized and located in generally more socialist countries..
I think the reason NYC, Chicago and LA didn’t make the list is because of the extreme wealth inequality and crime which are all normal for a massive sized city…