The Mercer Quality of Living Survey ranks 221 cities from Vienna to Baghdad on quality of life.^[1][2]

In 2010, Vienna won the title as the highest ranked city, followed by Zurich (2), Geneva (3), jointly Vancouver (4) and Auckland (4), and Düsseldorf (5). Vienna was again the highest ranked city in 2011, followed by Zurich (2), Auckland (3), Munich (4) and jointly Düsseldorf (5) and Vancouver (5). The quality of living survey is conducted to help governments and major companies place employees on international assignments. The survey also identifies those cities with the highest personal safety ranking based upon internal stability, crime, effectiveness of law enforcement and relationships with other countries. In this case, Luxembourg is top, followed by Bern, Helsinki and Zurich, all equally placed at number 2.

Scoring[link]

The cities — 221 in total — were evaluated on 39 factors including political, economic, environmental, personal safety, health, education, transportation and other public service factors. Cities were compared to New York City which was given a base score of 100.

Vienna, Austria

Zurich, Switzerland

Vancouver, Canada

Auckland, New Zealand

Düsseldorf, Germany

Sydney, Australia

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Toronto, Canada

Berlin, Germany

Melbourne, Australia

Stockholm, Sweden

Port Louis, Mauritius

Singapore

Dublin, Ireland

Lisbon, Portugal

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Oslo, Norway

Chicago, United States

2010 Rank	City	Country	Index 2010
1	Vienna	Austria	108.6
2	Zurich	Switzerland	108.0
3	Geneva	Switzerland	107.9
4	Vancouver	Canada	107.4
4	Auckland	New Zealand	107.4
6	Düsseldorf	Germany	107.2
7	Frankfurt	Germany	107.0
7	Munich	Germany	107.0
9	Bern	Switzerland	106.5
10	Sydney	Australia	106.3
11	Copenhagen	Denmark	106.2
12	Wellington	New Zealand	105.9
13	Amsterdam	Netherlands	105.7
14	Ottawa	Canada	105.5
15	Brussels	Belgium	105.4
16	Toronto	Canada	105.3
17	Berlin	Germany	105.0
18	Melbourne	Australia	104.8
19	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	104.6
20	Stockholm	Sweden	104.5
21	Perth	Australia	104.2
21	Montreal	Canada	104.2
23	Hamburg	Germany	104.1
24	Nürnberg	Germany	103.9
24	Oslo	Norway	103.9
26	Canberra	Australia	103.6
27	Dublin	Ireland	103.6
28	Calgary	Canada	103.5
28	Singapore	Singapore	103.5
30	Stuttgart	Germany	103.3
31	Honolulu	United States	103.1
32	Adelaide	Australia	103.0
32	San Francisco	United States	103.0
34	Paris	France	102.9
35	Helsinki	Finland	102.6
36	Brisbane	Australia	102.4
37	Boston	United States	102.2
38	Lyon	France	101.9
39	London	United Kingdom	101.6
40	Tokyo	Japan	101.4
41	Milan	Italy	100.8
41	Kobe	Japan	100.8
41	Yokohama	Japan	100.8
44	Barcelona	Spain	100.6
45	Lisbon	Portugal	100.3
45	Chicago	United States	100.3
45	Washington DC	United States	100.3
48	Madrid	Spain	100.2
49	New York City	United States	100.0
50	Seattle	United States	99.8

Top cities by region[link]

North America

Rank	Overall Ranking	City	Quality of living
1	4	Vancouver	107.4
2	14	Ottawa	105.5
3	16	Toronto	105.3
4	21	Montreal	104.2
5	28	Calgary	103.5

Asia

Rank	Overall Ranking	City	Quality of living
1	28	Singapore	103.5
2	40	Tokyo	101.4
3	41	Yokohama	100.8
4	41	Kobe	100.8
5	51	Osaka	100.5

Northern Europe

Rank	Overall Ranking	City	Quality of living
1	6	Düsseldorf	107.2
2	7	Frankfurt	107.0
3	11	Copenhagen	106.2
4	20	Stockholm	104.5
4	24	Oslo	103.9
5	35	Helsinki	102.6

Central Europe

Rank	Overall Ranking	City	Quality of living
1	1	Vienna	108.6
2	2	Zurich	108.0
3	3	Geneva	107.9
4	34	Paris	102.9
5	38	Lyon	101.9
6	41	Milan	100.8

Southern Europe

Rank	Overall Ranking	City	Quality of living
1	44	Barcelona	100.6
2	45	Lisbon	100.3
3	48	Madrid	100.2

Oceania

Rank	Overall Ranking	City	Quality of living
1	4	Auckland	107.4
2	10	Sydney	106.3
3	12	Wellington	105.9
4	18	Melbourne	104.8
5	21	Perth	104.2

Middle East & North Africa

Rank	Overall Ranking	City	Quality of living
1	75	Dubai	87.0
2	83	Abu Dhabi	84.1
3	100	Muscat	81.7

Sub-Saharan Africa

Rank	Overall Ranking	City	Quality of living
1	82	Port Louis	87.7
2	86	Cape Town	85.7
3	90	Johannesburg	83.3

South America

Rank	Overall Ranking	City	Quality of living
1	78	Buenos Aires	88.8
2	79	Montevideo	88.6
3	83	Santiago	84.4

See also[link]

• World's most livable cities
• List of most expensive cities for expatriate employees

References[link]

1. ^ "Quality of Living worldwide city rankings 2010 – Mercer survey". Mercer.com. 26 May 2010. http://www.mercer.com/press-releases/quality-of-living-report-2010. Retrieved 29 August 2011. 
2. ^ [1]

External links[link]

• 2011 Mercer Quality of Living Survey
• 2011 Mercer Quality of Living Interactive World Map

The term quality of life is used to evaluate the general well-being of individuals and societies. The term is used in a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international development, healthcare, and politics. Quality of life should not be confused with the concept of standard of living, which is based primarily on income. Instead, standard indicators of the quality of life include not only wealth and employment, but also the built environment, physical and mental health, education, recreation and leisure time, and social belonging.^[1]

According to ecological economist Robert Costanza:

While Quality of Life (QOL) has long been an explicit or implicit policy goal, adequate definition and measurement have been elusive. Diverse "objective" and "subjective" indicators across a range of disciplines and scales, and recent work on subjective well-being (SWB) surveys and the psychology of happiness have spurred renewed interest.^[2]

Also frequently related are concepts such as freedom, human rights, and happiness. However, since happiness is subjective and hard to measure, other measures are generally given priority. It has also been shown that happiness, as much as it can be measured, does not necessarily increase correspondingly with the comfort that results from increasing income. As a result, standard of living should not be taken to be a measure of happiness.^[1][3]

Quantitative measurement[link]

Unlike per capita GDP or standard of living, both of which can be measured in financial terms, it is harder to make objective or long-term measurements of the quality of life experienced by nations or other groups of people. Researchers have begun in recent times to distinguish two aspects of personal well-being: Emotional well-being, in which respondents are asked about the quality of their everyday emotional experiences—the frequency and intensity of their experiences of, for example, joy, stress, sadness, anger, and affection— and life evaluation, in which respondents are asked to think about their life in general and evaluate it against a scale.^[4] Such and other systems and scales of measurement have been in use for some time.

Human Development Index[link]

Perhaps the most commonly used international measure of development is the Human Development Index (HDI), which combines measures of life expectancy, education, and standard of living, in an attempt to quantify the options available to individuals within a given society. The HDI is used by the United Nations Development Programme in their Human Development Report.

Other measures[link]

The Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI) is a measure developed by sociologist Morris David Morris in the 1970s, based on basic literacy, infant mortality, and life expectancy. Although not as complex as other measures, and now essentially replaced by the Human Development Index, the PQLI is notable for Morris's attempt to show a "less fatalistic pessimistic picture" by focussing on three areas where global quality of life was generally improving at the time, and ignoring Gross National Product and other possible indicators that were not improving.^[5]

The Happy Planet Index, introduced in 2006, is unique among quality of life measures in that, in addition to standard determinants of well-being, it uses each country's ecological footprint as an indicator. As a result, European and North American nations do not dominate this measure. The 2009 list is instead topped by Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica.^[6]

Gallup researchers trying to find the world's happiest countries found Denmark to be at the top of the list.^[7] uSwitch publishes an annual quality of life index for European countries. France has topped the list for the last three years. ^[8]

A 2010 study by two Princeton University professors looked at 1,000 randomly selected U.S. residents over an extended period. It concludes that their life evaluations - that is, their considered evaluations of their life against a stated scale of one to ten - rise steadily with income. On the other hand, their reported quality of emotional daily experiences (their reported experiences of joy, affection, stress, sadness, or anger) levels off after a certain income level (approximately $75,000 per year); income above $75,000 does not lead to more experiences of happiness nor to further relief of unhappiness or stress. Below this income level, respondents reported decreasing happiness and increasing sadness and stress, implying the pain of life’s misfortunes, including disease, divorce, and being alone, is exacerbated by poverty.^[9]

Livability[link]

The term quality of life is also used by politicians and economists to measure the livability of a given city or nation. Two widely known measures of livability are the Economist Intelligence Unit's quality-of-life index and Mercer's Quality of Living Reports. These two measures calculate the livability of countries and cities around the world, respectively, through a combination of subjective life-satisfaction surveys and objective determinants of quality of life such as divorce rates, safety, and infrastructure. Such measures relate more broadly to the population of a city, state, or country, not to individual quality of life.

Crimes[link]

Some crimes against property (e.g., graffiti and vandalism) and some "victimless crimes" have been referred to as "quality-of-life crimes." American sociologist James Q. Wilson encapsulated this argument as the Broken Window Theory, which asserts that relatively minor problems left unattended (such as litter, graffiti, or public urination by homeless individuals) send a subliminal message that disorder in general is being tolerated, and as a result, more serious crimes will end up being committed (the analogy being that a broken window left unrepaired shows an image of general dilapidation).

Wilson's theories have been used to justify the implementation of zero tolerance policies by many prominent American mayors, most notably Oscar Goodman in Las Vegas, Richard Riordan in Los Angeles, Rudolph Giuliani in New York City and Gavin Newsom in San Francisco. Such policies do not tolerate even minor crimes, it is argued, in order to improve the quality of life of local residents. However, critics of zero tolerance policies believe that such policies neglect investigation on a case-by-case basis and may lead to unreasonably harsh penalties for crimes.

Popsicle index[link]

The Popsicle Index is a quality of life measurement coined by Catherine Austin Fitts as the percentage of people in a community who believe that a child in their community can safely leave his home, walk to the nearest possible location to buy a popsicle, and walk back home.^[10][11][12]

In healthcare[link]

Within the field of healthcares, quality of life is often regarded in terms of how it is negatively affected, on an individual level, a debilitating weakness that is not life-threatening, life-threatening illness that is not terminal, terminal illness, the predictable, natural decline in the health of an elder, an unforeseen mental/physical decline of a loved one, chronic, end-stage disease processes. Researchers at the University of Toronto's Quality of Life Research Unit define quality of life as “The degree to which a person enjoys the important possibilities of his or her life” (UofT). Their Quality of Life Model is based on the categories “being”, “belonging”, and “becoming”, respectively who one is, how one is not connected to one's environment, and whether one achieves one's personal goals, hopes, and aspirations.^[13][14]

Use in International development[link]

Quality of life is an important concept in the field of international development, since it allows development to be analyzed on a measure broader than standard of living. Within development theory, however, there are varying ideas concerning what constitutes desirable change for a particular society, and the different ways that quality of life is defined by institutions therefore shapes how these organizations work for its improvement as a whole.

Organizations such as the World Bank, for example, declare a goal of "working for a world free of poverty",^[15] with poverty defined as a lack of basic human needs, such as food, water, shelter, freedom, access to education, healthcare, or employment.^[16] In other words, poverty is defined as a low quality of life. Using this definition, the World Bank works towards improving quality of life through neoliberal means, with the stated goal of lowering poverty and helping people afford a better quality of life.

Other organizations, however, may also work towards improved global quality of life using a slightly different definition and substantially different methods. Many NGOs do not focus at all on reducing poverty on a national or international scale, but rather attempt to improve quality of life for individuals or communities. One example would be sponsorship programs that provide material aid for specific individuals. Although many organizations of this type may still talk about fighting poverty, the methods are significantly different.

Opportunities, education, health, security and a healthy environment contribute to the quality of life. Public policy plays a great role happiness, as Petra Pinzler points out in D+C Development and Cooperation.

Because of these differences in the theory and practice of development, there is also a wide range of quantitative measures used to describe quality of life.

See also[link]

• Happiness
• Subjective well-being
• Simple living

Indices:

• Gross National Happiness
• Genuine Progress Indicator - A proposed alternative to GDP
• Self-Perceived Quality of Life Scale
• Quality of working life

Journals:

• Social Indicators Research
• Journal of Business Ethics

References[link]

External links[link]

• The First European Quality of Life Survey 2003
• Quality of Life in a Changing Europe, A research project on the quality of lives and work of European citizens
• Ensuring quality of life in Europe's cities and towns, European Environment Agency
• AQoL Instruments, Quality of Life Assessment Instruments - Centre for Health Economics, Monash University Australia
• Applied Research in Quality of Life, the official journal of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies
• Child Indicators Research, the official journal of the International Society for Child Indicators
• Quality of Life Research, an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care, and rehabilitation - official journal of the International Society of Quality of Life Research
• After 2015: '3D Human Wellbeing', policy briefing on the value of refocusing development on 3D human wellbeing for pro-poor policy change, from the Institute of Development Studies, UK.
• Mercer Quality of Living survey
• Subjective well-being: measuring subjective well being ISBN 978-1-4565-0757-2
• Basic Guide to the World: Quality of Life Throughout the World
• Family database, OECD

Further Reading[link]

• Eric Ezechieli, "Beyond Sustainable Development: Education for Gross National Happiness in Bhutan" http://suse-ice.stanford.edu/monographs/Ezechieli.pdf, Stanford University, 2003