Either Auckland is improving, or other cities worldwide are getting worse.

In fact, Auckland’s quality of life score has improved a little this year in Mercer’s Quality of Living global city rankings 2009, pushing it into 4th place (from 5th), while Wellington has kept hold of 12th place.

In a quality of life survey of 215 cities, with the top rankings dominated by the European cities of Austria, Germany and Switzerland, the New Zealand cities have performed admirably.

Auckland and Wellington join Vancouver as the only non-European cities to make it into the world’s top twelve Quality of Life cities.

Sydney, in 10th place, was the highest ranked Australian city, while the USA’s best cities were Honolulu in 29th place and San Francisco in 30th place. London was the UK’s best ranked city, in 38th place.

Selection of Cities from Quality of Life Top 50

Rank City
1 Vienna, Austria
2 Zurich, Switzerland
3 Geneva, Switzerland
4 Auckland, New Zealand
4= Vancouver, Canada
10 Sydney, Australia
11 Copenhagen, Denmark
12 Wellington, New Zealand
15 Toronto, Canada
18 Melbourne, Australia
25 Dublin, Ireland
26 Singapore
26= Calgary, Canada
29 Honolulu, USA
30 Adelaide, Australia
34 Brisbane, Australia
35 Boston, USA
38 London, United Kingdom
50 Seattle, USA

Living conditions in the cities are analysed according to 39 factors, grouped in 10 categories:

  • Political and social environment (political stability, crime, law enforcement, etc)
  • Economic environment (currency exchange regulations, banking services, etc)
  • Socio-cultural environment (censorship, limitations on personal freedom, etc)
  • Health and sanitation (medical supplies and services, infectious diseases, sewage, waste disposal, air pollution, etc)
  • Schools and education (standard and availability of international schools, etc)
  • Public services and transportation (electricity, water, public transport, traffic congestion, etc)
  • Recreation (restaurants, theatres, cinemas, sports and leisure, etc)
  • Consumer goods (availability of food/daily consumption items, cars, etc)
  • Housing (housing, household appliances, furniture, maintenance services, etc)
  • Natural environment (climate, record of natural disasters)