Durban top SA city, says survey

Vienna

Vienna, Austria’s grand capital on the Danube river, has, for the eighth year in a row, topped consulting firm Mercer’s list of cities offering the highest quality of life, while Baghdad is again considered the worst place to live.

Durban, stripped this week of the right to stage the Commonwealth Games in 2022 after a trail of missed deadlines and financial problems, tops Africa’s list at No 87. Cape Town was 94th and Johannesburg was two places behind in 96th spot.

The survey of 231 cities helps companies and organisations determine compensation and hardship allowances for international staff. It uses dozens of criteria, such as political stability, healthcare, education, crime, recreation and transport.

Global centres London, Paris, Tokyo and New York City did not even make the top 30, lagging behind most big German, Scandinavian, Canadian, New Zealand and Australian cities.

Singapore was the highest-ranked Asian city, at 25, while 29th-placed San Francisco was the United States’ highest entry.

Vienna’s 1.8 million inhabitants benefit from the city’s cafe culture and museums, theatres and operas. Rents and public transport costs in the city, whose architecture is marked by its past as the centre of the Habsburg empire, are cheap compared with other western capitals.

Switzerland’s Zurich, New Zealand’s Auckland, Germany’s Munich and Canada’s Vancouver followed Vienna in the top five of most pleasant cities to live in.

Baghdad was again ranked lowest in the world. Waves of sectarian violence have swept through the Iraqi capital since the US-led invasion in 2003. – Reuters