Top 10 Cities With Best Quality of Life
The best place to live in the world is Zurich, Switzerland, according to a quality-of-life survey conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.
Zurich was crowned No. 1 for the second year running based on 39 criteria that included a variety of political, social, and economic factors such as the quality of health, education, and transportation services. Of the world's top 30 cities, 17 are in Europe.
All 215 cities worldwide were judged against New York City as the baseline, which came in at No. 44. The only U.S. city to make the top 20 was San Francisco at No. 18. Other high-scoring U.S. cities were Honolulu, Seattle, Portland, and Boston.
Top 10 Cities With the Best Quality of Life
Zurich, Switzerland
Vancouver, Canada
Vienna, Austria
Geneva, Switzerland
Sydney, Australia
Auckland, New Zealand
Copenhagen, Denmark
Frankfurt, Germany
Bern, Switzerland
Munich, Germany
Cities With the Worst Quality of Life (in descending order):
Pointe Noire, Congo
Baghdad, Iraq
Bangui, Central African Republic
Brazzaville, Congo
Top 10 Safest Cities (based on crime levels, law enforcement, and internal stability)
Luxembourg
Bern, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Helsinki, Finland
Singapore
Zurich, Switzerland
Nagoya, Japan
Omuta, Japan
Osaka, Japan
Tokyo, Japan
Canadian cities are the safest in North America, due largely to strict law enforcement and low crime rates.
The safest U.S. cities are Honolulu, Hawaii; Houston, Texas; and San Francisco, California.
The Least Safe Cities:
Bangui in the Central African Republic scored the lowest for personal safety of all cities worldwide.
Other low-scoring cities are Abidjan in the Ivory Coast, Pointe Noire and Brazzaville in Congo, and Luanda in Angola. All have experienced prolonged periods of civil unrest, as well as high crime rates and poor law enforcement.
Milan, Athens, and Rome are the least safe cities in Western Europe due largely to high crime levels.
Washington, D.C. ranks lowest for personal safety in the United States.