Vienna remains the best city for staff who live abroad, says Mercer survey
The Austrian capital was ranked first out of 231 cities, taking the top spot for the eighth time in a row. Dublin, which was the only city in the Republic to be ranked, was 34. Belfast was ranked at 66.
The rest of the top 10 list is mostly filled by European cities, with Zurich in second place, with Munich, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Copenhagen, and Basel, a newcomer to the list, in 10th place.
The only non-European cities in the top 10 are third-placed Auckland and fifth-placed Vancouver. The highest ranking cities in Asia and Latin America are Singapore at 25 and Uruguayan capital Montevideo at 79.
Iraqi capital Baghdad finished at the bottom of the list of the 231 cities surveyed. Brussels dropped six places to 27 because of terrorism- related security issues, and Rome was down four places to 57 due to its waste-removal issues. Istanbul fell to 133rd place as a result of the severe political turmoil in Turkey during the past year.
The survey takes account of factors such as climate, disease and sanitation standards, ease of communications, and physical remoteness for company employees sent abroad for work purposes. Local political and social environment, political violence, and crime are also factored in.
Consultant at Mercer Ireland Noel O’Connor said: “The 19th Mercer Quality of Living Survey demonstrates that Dublin remains an attractive location for international businesses to send their employees. Dublin is the highest ranked city across the UK and Ireland while also comparing very favourably to a host of other European capital cities.”
He said factors placing Dublin in the top 50 for quality of living worldwide included “an excellent choice of consumer goods, lower levels of air pollution, stable political and strong socio-cultural environment”. The quality of city infrastructure in cities was examined separately.
Singapore tops the city infrastructure ranking, followed by Frankfurt and Munich. Dublin ranks in 60th place behind London, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Glasgow but ahead of Belfast and Aberdeen. Baghdad and Haitian capital Port-au-Prince ranked last.
Mr O’Connor said: “Access to a variety of transport options, being connected locally and internationally, and access to electricity and drinkable water are among the essential needs of expatriates.”
