Best city in world- Vancouver second, study says
www.globeandmail.ca By JEFF GRAY Globe and Mail Update
For the second year in a row, Vancouver has finished second in a study ranking quality of life in 215 world cities.
The study, from Mercer Human Resource Consulting — a firm with offices in 40 countries — takes into account public safety, political stability, economics, culture, personal freedom, schools, transit and other public services.
Vancouver finished first in the same rankings two years ago, but slipped to second last year because of "traffic congestion" — leaving the top spot to Zurich. The Swiss city ranked first again this year.
In this year's survey, Toronto ranked 12th, tied with Brussels and the German city of Düsseldorf and up from 18th the year before. Ottawa was 20th, up five spots from last year. Montreal was 23rd, a two-spot improvement. Calgary was 26th, up from 31st.
Mercer said Scandinavian cities — which usually rank quite high on such surveys — were re-evaluated this year "on the basis of evidence relating to seasonal affective disorders caused by shorter daylight hours."
Some of their rankings appeared to slip as a result.
Helsinki dropped to 26th from sixth, while Oslo sank from 15th to 31st.
Many of the world's most-visited and most-romanticized cities rank quite low on the quality-of-life scale.
London ranked 39th, tied with Boston, Portland, the French city of Lyon and North Carolina's Winston-Salem. At 31st, Paris ranks behind Calgary, on par with the Australian cities of Brisbane and Adelaide and with Yokohama, Japan. New York ranked 44th.
The worst place in the world to live was Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo. It ranked 215th. Many African cities were clustered at the bottom of the scale, but the Iraqi capital of Baghdad was third-last.
Mercer said the rankings were accurate as of November, 2002, but could be re-evaluated, especially if events in the Middle East warrant.
Ranked on public safety alone, Canada's cities are the safest in North America, the study says, "due to strict law enforcement and low crime rates."
All five cities tied for 25th in the world on this measure.
In the U.S., Honolulu, Houston and San Francisco were the safest, tying for 40th place worldwide. Washington, D.C., was North America's most dangerous city, ranking 107th.
Luxembourg was the safest city in the world; Bangui, in the Central African Republic, was deemed the most dangerous.
Caracas, 140
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