06/10/2012
1. Vienna, Austria
Vienna has won the title of the world’s best city for quality of life since 2009. It is one of three capital cities around the world to make the top 10 list.
The city is Austria’s largest by population, as well as the cultural, economic, and political center of the nation. Vienna’s ability to transform old infrastructure into modern dwellings won the city the 2010 UN urban planning award for improving the living conditions of its residents. Under a multimillion-dollar program, the city refurbished more than 5,000 buildings with nearly 250,000 apartments. Vienna is also the world’s number one destination for conferences, drawing five million tourists a year — equivalent to three tourists for every city resident.
Countries such as Austria, Germany, and Switzerland have fared quite well in the quality of life rankings, despite recent turmoil in Europe. However, Mercer’s senior researcher Slagin Parakatil says these cities are not immune to decreases in living standards if the region’s economic troubles continue to go unsolved.
