Vancouver, Ottawa rank in top 5 for quality of life in North America

By now, it's well-established that Vancouver is the good-looking one in our cosy family of Canadian cities.

So it should come as no surprise to anyone that the West Coast jewel scored the highest out of any North American urban centre in the latest quality of living rankings issued by global business consultant Mercer.

The index looks at more than 223 cities around the world and ranks them based on:

• economic climate

• political stability

• air pollution

• crime statistics

• public and medical services

• infrastructure

• access to consumer goods

• housing

• recreation

The index is designed for companies to help determine compensation for their employees working abroad.

Globally, Vienna took the number-one spot as the city that offers the best quality of living world-wide. Zurich, Auckland and Munich followed in second, third and fourth positions, respectively. Vancouver ranked number five for quality of living among international competitors.

But, before anyone gets too upset, it's worth noting that Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal also scored relatively high up on the list. The three cities all ranked among the top five in North America, with San Francisco the only American centre to make the exclusive cut.

In the 14th position globally, Ottawa just edged out Toronto (15th). Montreal ranked 23rd.

Winter had much to do with the index rankings.

"It basically boils down to climate because Vancouver has a relatively mild climate," Luc Lalonde, a principal at Mercer Canada, told the Canadian Press.

Lalonde said Canadian cities, overall offer a high quality of living and are attractive working destination for companies and their expatriates.

“Canada’s relationships with other countries are also good and crime levels tend to be low, relative to other major cities around the world,” he said.

The index also ranks cities at the bottom-end of the quality-of-life scale.

That dubious merit was won by Bagdad, Iraq which came in at the very bottom of the global list.

In North America, Mexico City (122nd globally) is considered to offer the lowest quality of life, following by Detroit (70), St. Louis (67), Houston (66), and Miami (67).

In the 25th position globally, Singapore is the highest-ranking Asian city, whereas Dubai (73) ranks first across the Middle East and Africa. The city of Pointe-à-Pitre (69), Guadeloupe, takes the top spot for Central and South America.

The lowest-ranking cities in the same regions were Dushanbe, Tajikistan (209), Baghdad (223) and Port au Prince, Haiti (221), respectively.

The index notes many cities have made huge strides in improving quality of life in a bid to attract more foreign companies. Cities such as Wroclaw, Poland (107), Manaus, Brazil (125) and Durban, South Africa are all acknowledged on this year's list for their considerable investments in infrastructure and efforts to attract foreign direct investments by providing incentives such as tax, housing, or entry facilities.

Several Asian cities are also starting to emerge as important places of business for multinational companies, according to the index. Examples include Cheonan, South Korea (98), which is strategically located in an area where several technology companies have operations. Pune, India (139) has developed into an education hub and home to IT, other high-tech industries, and automobile manufacturing, while the city of Xian, China (141) has also witnessed some major developments in financial services, consulting, and computer services.