Vienna most liveable city for 10th year in row
- The Austrian capital Vienna has topped Mercer’s index of most liveable cities for the 10th year in a row.
- Known by tourists for its imperial past, gilded palaces and classical music, the city of 1.9 million is also nicknamed “red Vienna” for having long been run by the political left, with cheap public services and abundant social housing.
- Being medium-sized, safe and relatively green are some of the features it shares with second-placed Zurich, a much more expensive city and major financial centre, as well as with Auckland, Munich and Vancouver, which came joint third.
- Those top five cities in consulting firm Mercer’s 2019 Quality of Living Ranking published on Wednesday were unchanged from last year’s edition, though Vancouver rose to joint third from fifth. “Quality of living is determined by many factors, from access to public transport and traffic congestion levels, to the availability of housing and international schools, to a city’s cultural scene,” Mercer said in a statement, without specifying how Vienna keeps edging out Zurich.
- Mercer says it looks at 39 factors grouped under 10 headings such as “political and social environment” and “recreation”.
- The 10 cities at the bottom of the 231-city table were unchanged, with Baghdad ranked last, followed by Bangui in the Central African Republic and Yemen’s capital Sanaa.
