MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Montevideo and Buenos Aires, best cities in Latam

Montevideo and Buenos Aires rank as the two cities in Latinamerica with the best quality of living according to a survey released Monday by Mercer Human Resources Consulting which regularly assesses cities worldwide.

Top of the list are the Swiss cities of Zurich and Geneva, followed by Vancouver, Canada and Vienna, Austria. In contrast Baghdad is the lowest ranking city in the survey.

The analysis is part of an annual World-wide Quality of Living Survey, covering more than 350 cities, to help governments and multinational companies place employees on international assignments. Each city is based on an evaluation of 39 criteria, including political, social, economic and environmental factors, personal safety and health, education, transport, and other public services. Cities are ranked against New York as the base city, which has an index score of 100.

"When multinational companies set up expatriate assignments they have to provide attractive reward packages to compensate employees for any negative changes to their quality of living," Yvonne Sonsino, Principal at Mercer, commented.

"Moving abroad can be a big upheaval for expatriates and their families, so international assignments tend to carry large price tags, particularly if they are in cities with low living standards facing political unrest or terrorist threats." She added: "Many companies use benchmark data to help them structure pay deals at the right level."

Almost half the top 30 scoring cities are in Western Europe. Besides Zurich, Geneva and Vienna, other highly-rated cities include Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich in positions 6, 7 and 8 respectively. Athens remains the lowest scoring city in Western Europe. London is the UK's highest ranking city and is stable at position 39. The two other UK cities covered in the survey are Birmingham and Glasgow, with both climbing one place to position 55 while Dublin has dropped two places to position 24, mainly due to increased traffic congestion.

As predicted, cities in Eastern Europe such as Budapest, Ljubljana, Prague, Vilnius, Tallinn and Warsaw continue to benefit from incremental score increases and are gradually climbing the rankings.

"The standard of living in many Eastern European cities is gradually improving, as the countries that most recently joined the EU attract greater investment" commented Slagin Parakatil, Senior Researcher at Mercer.

Positions for most cities in Europe and the Middle East are generally unchanged, with the exception of Cairo which has tumbled nine places to position 131 because of political turmoil and terrorist attacks in the city and surrounding area.

Honolulu, the highest ranking city in the U.S., drops two positions to 27. San Francisco remains at position 28; Boston, Washington, Chicago and Portland follow in positions 36, 41, 41 and 43 respectively while Houston remains the lowest ranking city in the U.S. at position 68. Overall, U.S. cities continue to slip slightly or remain stable in the rankings, except Chicago which has moved up 11 places due to decreased crime rates.

In Latin America behind Montevideo and Buenos Aires, ranks Santiago de Chile, Sao Paulo, Asunción, Quito, Mexico City, Bogotá, Havana and Port au Prince in Haiti.

In South America, scores vary considerably due to differences in economic and political stability. "Argentina's steady economic recovery is likely to push its cities up in the rankings in the next few years," commented Mr. Parakatil.

In Oceania Auckland and Wellington (NZ) have both moved up the rankings from 8 to 5 and 14 to 12 respectively, mainly due to strong internal stability relative to other cities, while Sydney remains at position 9.

In Asia, Singapore ranks 34 followed by Tokyo, Japan's highest scoring city, at position 35. Hong Kong's modern and efficient infrastructure, including its airport, considered one of best in the world, has pushed it up from 70 to 68 position.

The top-ranking city in China is Shanghai in place 103. "Beijing and Shanghai are on the rise and should experience rapid improvements in quality of living in the coming years. This is mainly due to greater international investment driven by the availability and lower cost of labour and manufacturing expertise" explained Mr. Parakatil.

Though cities in India generally rank lower than their Chinese counterparts, they are also showing signs of development in the region.