Zurich of Switzerland is the city with the highest quality of life in 2006, while Baghdad, for the third year running, has the lowest, a survey published by human resource company Mercer on Monday shows. 

    Zurich, Geneva and Vancouver made the top three in the list while Bangui in the Central African Republic and Brazzaville, the capital of Congo Republic, joined Baghdad in the bottom three. 

    The top three cities in the list are all unchanged from last year. 

    Almost half the top 30 scoring cities are in Western Europe. In this region, Vienna follows Zurich and Geneva in 4th position. Other highly-rated cities include Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich in positions 6, 7 and 8 respectively. Athens remains the lowest scoring city in Western Europe, standing at position 79. 

    Chicago is one of the biggest climbers in the rankings since 2005, rising to 41st from 52nd due to reduced crime rates, while Cairo is one of the biggest fallers, sliding nine places to 131st out of 215 cities. 

    "(This was) due to political turmoil and terrorist attacks in the city and surrounding area," Mercer said. 

    Asia-Pacific Auckland and Wellington have both moved up the rankings from 8th to 5th and 14th to 12th places respectively, while Sydney remains at position 9. 

    In Asia, Singapore ranks 34th followed by Tokyo, Japan's highest scoring city, at position 35. Hong Kong's modern and efficient infrastructure, including its airport which is considered one of best in the world, has pushed it up from 70th to 68th position. 

    The top-ranking city in China's mainland is Shanghai in 103rd place. 

    "Beijing and Shanghai are on the rise and should experience rapid improvements in quality of living in the coming years. This is mainly due to greater international investment driven by the availability and lower cost of labour and manufacturing expertise," explained Mr. Slagin Parakatil, Senior Researcher at Mercer. 

    Mercer bases its annual survey on 39 quality-of-life factors, from political stability to schools, bars, restaurants and the environment. 

    The top ten cities in the list: 

    Zurich, Switzerland
    Geneva, Switzerland
    Vancouver, Canada
    Vienna, Austria
    Auckland, New Zealand
    Dusseldorf, Germany
    Munich, Germany
    Sydney, Australia
    Berne, Switzerland 

(Agencies)


Vocabulary: 


running : in a consecutive way