Cities in some of the world’s biggest economies like the
U.S. and Japan don’t make the cut. So, which are the
world’s best places to live in? Read ahead to find out.
Vienna, austria
The World’s
Best Places To Live
By Rajeshni Naidu-Ghelani
Can there be a city that is crime and pollution free, with
excellent public transport and great schools to boast?
Human resources consulting firm Mercer has put together
a list of cities that come closest to offering you all that. In its
2012 and 2013 Quality of Living report it looks at living conditions in 221 cities worldwide and ranks them against New
York as a base city in 10 categories - economy, socio-cultural,
environment, politics, education, and healthcare.
Austria’s most populous city – Vienna – has won the title of the world’s best city
for quality of life since 2009. It is also one of eight European cities to make the top 10
list, showing the region’s dominance in the survey Vienna is the cultural, economic, and
political center of the country. It has the highest per capita GDP among all Austrian cities at over $55,000. Vienna’s ability to transform old infrastructure into modern dwellings won the city the 2010 United Nations urban planning award for improving the living conditions of its residents. Under a multimillion-dollar program, the city refurbished
more than 5,000 buildings with nearly 250,000 apartments. Vienna is also the world’s No.
1 destination for conferences, drawing five million tourists a year — equivalent to three
tourists for every resident. The country’s economy has, however, not been immune to the
crisis plaguing Europe, and shrunk 0.1 percent in the third quarter of the year, as the European Union entered its second recession since 2009.