Colombo was named the best city in South Asia in Mercer’s 2017 quality of living survey. Globally, Colombo was ranked 132 out of the 231 cities surveyed.
Mercer helps companies “compensate employees fairly when placing them on international assignments” by considering factors such as the city’s political stability, crime levels, economic environment, personal and cultural freedom, health services, standard of education, transportation, housing and environment.
Noted trends in the survey include the best cities coming out of developed Western Europe countries. Developing, unsafe and wartone cities appeared at the bottom of the list.
Singapore was ranked the best city in terms of infrastructure, which was a separate survey.
The rankings of other major South Asian cities are as follows -
Mumbai - 154
New Delhi - 161
Islamabad - 194
Lahore - 202
Karachi - 204
Dhaka - 214
The top ten cities are
Vienna - Austria (Vienna held this title for eight consecutive years.)
Zurich - Switzerland
Auckland – New Zealand
Munich – Germany
Vancouver – Canada
Dusseldorf – Germany
Frankfurt – Germany
Geneva- Switzerland
Copenhagen- Denmark
Basel – Switzerland and Sydney – Australia
The worst 10 cities -
222. Conakry – Guinea
223. Kinshasa – Democratic Republic of the Congo
224. Brazzaville – Congo
225. Damascus – Syria
226. N’djamena – Chad
227. Khartoum – Sudan
228. Part au Prince – Haiti
229. Sana’a – Republic of Yemen
230. Bangui – Central African Republic
231. Baghdad – Iraq
