MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Montevideo, best city to live in Latinamerica

Montevideo and Buenos Aires are first and second in South America and 76 and 78 in a quality of life ranking list that that includes 215 world cities and which is annually published by Mercier Human Resources Consulting with main offices in Geneva and New York.

Zurich and Geneva in Switzerland figure top the list followed closely by cities in Western Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Vancouver, British Columbia ranks third and Vienna, fourth.

At the other end of the scale stands Baghdad in Iraq and Bangui, capital of the African Central republic where US marines and French gendarmes sent recently exiled Haiti president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The Mercier List takes into account a multiplicity of factors such as the socio-cultural environment, economic context, crime, pollution, public utilities services, sanitary and banking facilities, education, leisure (restaurants, cinema, theatre) and even access to consumer goods such as automobiles.

Mercier's best clients are the multinational corporations that are interested in living conditions for expatriates. The company was founded in 1937 and is currently established in 150 cities with 13,000 employees.

Middle East with terrorism threats and poverty stricken Africa concentrate the lower end of the Mercier List. In Latinamerica deficient sanitary conditions and contamination are a big minus with Quito and Caracas the cities with the worst quality of life conditions.

However in United States war on terrorism launched by the current Bush administration has had an impact in the quality of life for expatriates.

"Quality of life in US cities has dropped because of the hard restrictions imposed on foreigners in entering and leaving the country, as well as the overall security measures", explained Jazmin Kevorkian from Mercier.

Honolulu and San Francisco rank 24 and the worst Atlanta, 66.

In Latinamerica only San Juan de Puerto Rico, 71, ranks above Montevideo and Buenos Aires that has one of the world's highest noise levels.

Among Buenos Aires positive side are the "excellent" schools, good transport system, medical attention, sports clubs and night life.