London-based consulting company Mercer recently released their yearly rankings of the 25 most liveable cities. While European cities continue to dominate the top of the ranking, with Vienna stealing the number one spot, not a single U.S city made it to the top 30. Honolulu comes in at number 31, followed by San Francisco, which tied for 32 with Adelaide, Australia. Baghdad lies at the bottom of the list, along with other war torn cities such as Khartoum in Sudan and Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. The Christian Science Monitor presented some of the list in pictures, and we had to share…because things are always better in picture format.
Vienna, the former seat of the Habsburg Empire has sat at the top of the list for two years in a row.
Fellow Swiss city Geneva snagged the number two spot for the second year in a row. It also holds another top honor, as the world’s sixth most important financial center by the Global Financial Centers Index.
Vancouver, the best city to live in the Western Hemisphere, ranked fourth for the second year in a row. Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal were the only other cities in the Americas to crack the top 25.
Tied for number four with Vancouver is Auckland, New Zealand. Home to some 1.4 million people, Auckland has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world.
Lack of security and political stability continue to undermine Baghdad’s quality of living, placing it at the very bottom of Mercer’s list.
Hartoum, the capital of Sudan, whose president is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and war crimes, falls fourth to last on Mercer’s cities index.
Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia was nearly under siege in 2008, and despite it’s beautiful landscape, ranked a low score on Mercer’s list.
For more of Mercer’s best and worst cities in pictures, visit The Christian Science Monitor.
