Singapore is top Asian city for quality of living

Singapore has overtaken Tokyo as the top Asian city for quality of living according to Mercer's annual World-wide Quality of Living Survey. Singapore ranks 34th (score 102.5) followed by Tokyo, Japan's highest scoring city, at position 35 (score 102.3). Hong Kong's modern and efficient infrastructure, including its airport which is considered one of best in the world, has pushed it up from 70th to 68th position with a score of 95.4. The top-ranking city in China is Shanghai in 103rd place (score 80.1).

The best city in the world for quality living is Zurich. The city scores 108.2 and is only marginally ahead of Geneva, which scores 108.1, while Vancouver follows in third place with a score of 107.7. Other highly-rated cities include Dusseldorf (107.2), Frankfurt (107.0) and Munich (106.8) in positions 6, 7 and 8 respectively. Athens remains the lowest scoring city in Western Europe, scoring 86.8 at position 79.

London is the UK's highest ranking city and is stable at position 39 (score 101.2). The two other UK cities covered in the survey are Birmingham and Glasgow which both score 98.3 and climb one place to joint 55th position. Dublin has dropped two places to 24th position, scoring 103.8, mainly due to increased traffic congestion.

Auckland and Wellington have both moved up the rankings from 8th to 5th and 14th to 12th places respectively, mainly due to strong internal stability relative to other cities, while Sydney remains at position 9 with a score of 106.5.

And the city with the worst quality of living for the third consecutive year is Baghdad with a score of 14.5.