Durban the best in SA for quality of life

DURBAN has been ranked the number one city in South Africa in the Quality of Life Survey published yesterday.

The survey, conducted by Mercer among 230 cities around the world, placed Durban 85th retaining the top spot in SA – while Cape Town and Johannesburg followed in 92nd and 95th place respectively.

The city with the best quality of life in the world was Vienna, Austria. In the Africa and Middle East region, Dubai ranked highest in 75th place, Abu Dhabi at 81 and Port Louis, Mauritius, at 83.

Durban last year was ranked number seven in the New York Times 52 places to go list and in 2014 CNN named the city as one of the top underrated cities in the world and it also said Durban was the “coolest city in South Africa”.

City manager, S’bu Sithole, said they were thrilled by the news and said it showed that the municipality, despite having challenges, was changing people’s lives.

Sithole said they hoped to build on the positive results of the Quality of Life Survey and said the municipality wanted to improve on its provision of basic delivery such as water, sanitation and shelter.

Mercer evaluates the living conditions of 450 cities around the world and compiles a list of the top 230.

Using 39 indicators such as political stability, economic environment, media censorship, public service, transport, recreation and other factors, the organisation uses those as an instrument to measure the best quality of life city.