Vancouver Still Way Up There in Livability

The numbers have been tallied once more for the cities throughout the world in terms of ‘livability’. According to Business Week, “Mercer Consulting’s annual roundup of the global cities with the best quality of life” says that the most 25 livable cities include:

1. Zurich, Switzerland
2. Vienna, Austria tied with Geneva, Switzerland
3. Vancouver, Canada
4. Auckland, New Zealand
5. Dusseldorf, Germany
6. Munich, tied with Frankfurt, Germany
7. Bern, Switzerland
8. Sydney, Australia
9. Copenhagen, Denmark
10. Wellington, New Zealand
11. Amsterdam, Netherlands
12. Brussels, Belgium
13. Toronto, Canada
14. Berlin, Germany
15. Melbourne, Australia tied with Luxembourg
16. Ottawa, Canada
17. Stockholm, Sweden

Lowest ranking city of the 215 surveyed was Baghdad, Iraq. The highest ranking US city was Honolulu, at number 28. The article didn’t show any after 17 (or 20, again, depending on how you count).

How and why are these rankings put together? Here’s what they said:

The rankings are based on a point scoring index, with Zurich scoring 108 and Baghdad scoring 13.5. Cities are compared to New York as the base city, with an index score of 100. The quality-of-living survey covers 215 cities and is conducted to help governments and major companies place employees on international assignments. The survey also identifies those cities with the highest personal safety ranking based on internal stability, crime, effectiveness of law enforcement, and relationships with other countries.

I don’t know if this is significant in any way, but last year Vancouver came in third, once again behind Zurich and Geneva, and was tied with Vienna. This year coming in 4th (or third, depending on whether you count the tie as one or 2) with the same 3 cities above us, and a score of 107.6 amounts to more or less the same standing.

I’ll be particularly interested to see how this number changes over the next few years, both before and after the 2010 Olympics.