http://channels.netscape.com/ns/homerealestate/package.jsp?name=homerealestate/qualitycities/qualitycities
According to a quality-of-life survey conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, Zurich, Switzerland is the city with highest quality of life. Geneva, Switzerland was tied for number four on the list. The survey was based on 39 criteria that included a variety of political, social, and economic factors such as the quality of health, education, and transportation services.
Also, it seems that of the top thirty cities, seven are in Germany, five are in Canada, and four are in Australia. All of the Scandanavian and Benelux capitals are on the list. But it seems that only two of the top thirty cities are in the U.S. (San Francisco, and Honolulu), with only one of those being in the continental U.S.
Bangui in the Central African Republic was dead last on the list, at number 215. They remain hopeful, however, that they will soon lose that dubious distinction to Baghdad, which is currently poised at number 213 and preparing to drop.
Interesting Sydney was ranked 8 places above Melbourne. I grew up in Sydney and spent the vast majority of my life there, only living in Melbourne for the last two years.
Sydney is certainly a great tourist town and if you are lucky enough, economically, to live in the inner city then life is good. However the vast majority of the population live in the outer suburbs without and real public transport and congested (sometimes confusing) roads where you have to go south to head west etc.. It is also an unplanned city developing from the tents of the english invaders. Resulting in a culture of rushing form one place to another not relaxing.
Melbourne on the other hand has an excellent public transport systems and is a planned city with roads that go in the direction you need. Secondly becasue of climate and slight cultural differences people here are more relaxed and enjoy life. Eating out, not just take away junk food, is a regular occurance for a lot of people.
Personally having lived in both and recently returned to Sydney for a short break, I would choose to live in Melbourne.
-mike
I live in the UK - I doubt any of our large cities come anywhere near the top. Most of them a crippled by poor transport systems which makes getting around expensive and a pain (and sometimes dangerous).
However on the other hand if you move away from the cities, many of our towns and villages are very pleasant. I guess one of the important factors in these lists is to take into account the volume of people - More people = Lower Quality of Life...?
Originally posted by LazarausManchester has a fantastic transport system.
I live in the UK - I doubt any of our large cities come anywhere near the top. Most of them a crippled by poor transport systems which makes getting around expensive and a pain (and sometimes dangerous).
However on the other hand if you move away from the cities, many of our towns and villages are very pleasant. I guess one of the important factors in these lists is to take into account the volume of people - More people = Lower Quality of Life...?
Bus lanes,Metro,Taxis,Railway,Car parking,Park and ride,old-fashioned buses.
Liverpool is ok too.
Originally posted by schweigiI stand corrected, but for the wrong reason. I thought number ten on the list said Bonn, when it actually says Bern. Vienna is, of course, the capital of Austria. My second recount also reveals that Canada only has 4 cities in the top thirty (Calgary being at 31).
There are only 6 german cities in the top 30 --- vienna (ranked 2nd) is the capital of Austria!!!
woohoo! Go Brussles - all the way at no. 13 (or 15 if you want to look at it that way).
I'd like to know what the criteria places were judged on exactly, because there are several nice but small cities that aren't there. And, after travelling around a bit, I'm not suprised that there are so few British cities there 😳. I love Britain, but it's cities do look dirty and shabby in comparison. I'm amazed London gets a look in (but that's probably just from my experience of it).
Also, how would the list look if you divided the score they got by the cost of living there?
Originally posted by belgianfreakI think they were only judging large cities. I do not know what their definition of "large" is however. I don't know where Detroit falls on the list, but it is higher than Baghdad.
woohoo! Go Brussles - all the way at no. 13 (or 15 if you want to look at it that way).
I'd like to know what the criteria places were judged on exactly, because there are several nice but small cities that aren't there. And, after travelling around a bit, I'm not suprised that there are so few British cities there 😳. I love Britain, but it's c ...[text shortened]...
Also, how would the list look if you divided the score they got by the cost of living there?
It's interesting that, if you complete the poll at that site that asks where you would most like to live (from a list of 10), San Fran and Sydney tie at 20%, followed by Vancouver at 19% and New York at 14% (after 24315 votes). Probably the results are skewed because it's an English-language site and so on, but if we assume that people read the list before polling, then they are choosing where they want to live on different criteria than those used by the 'experts' who compiled the list. I suppose language considerations will enter into it, but then, what's the use of a popularity poll in the first place?
Of the cities on the list, I chose 'Vienna' (7% ), but I hope to live in several cities during my lifetime. Next year, I hope to live and work in Japan. Not sure exactly where, yet, but perhaps Kyoto or Nara (Canberra's sister city). I'd also like to spend time living in Buenos Aires or Rio, Prague, Amsterdam perhaps, Alexandria and Venice, among others. Copenhagen, Helsinki and Moscow all have appeal, too. Of US cities, San Fran, New Orleans, NY. Does anybody else have any cities where they always dreamt of living, if only for a year or two?
Originally posted by dfm65I would say Ouagadougou, in Burkina Faso, or Bandar Seri Begawan, in the Sultanate of Brunei. Actually, I wouldn't want to live in either one...I just like saying them.
...Does anybody else have any cities where they always dreamt of living, if only for a year or two?[/b]