Consulting firm Mercer's released its 19th Quality of Living survey on Tuesday, which ranked Singapore as the best place to live in Asia for expatriates and 25th best in the world. For the last eight years Vienna, Austria's grand capital on the Danube river is ranked first, while Baghdad and Port au Prince are considered the worst place to settle down.
Cities as many as 231 are considered in the survey, which helps companies and organisations to determine compensation and hardship allowances for their international staff, reported the Channel News Asia. The ranking is based on criteria like political stability, health care, education, crime, recreation and transport.
Moreover, the survey considers city infrastructure including the supply of electricity, drinking water, telephone and mail services. Other services, like public transportation and the range of international flights available from local airports, are also assessed before ranking the cities. According to Mercer's city infrastructure plays an important role as it helps multinationals to decide where to establish business and send expatriate workers.
Japanese cities, Tokyo and Kobe, secured the second position after Singapore at 47th and 50th globally. The Lion City topped the list ahead of Frankfurt and Munich. Other major Asian cities also featured on the list. Hong Kong came in at 71st place, Kuala Lumpur 86th, Shanghai 102nd, Bangkok 131st, Manila 135th and Jakarta 143rd.
However, global centres London, Paris, Tokyo and New York City did not make the top 30. Among the US cities San Francisco is the highest ranked at 29th position. African city Durban was placed at 87, which is also the highest for the continent.
