Top 50 Cities With Best Quality of Life
Cathryn Conroy

The best place to live in the world is Zurich, Switzerland, according to a quality-of-life survey conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

Zurich was crowned No. 1 based on 39 criteria that included a variety of political, social, and economic factors such as the quality of health, education, and transportation services. Just behind Zurich are Vienna, Vancouver, Sydney, and Geneva. The only U.S. city to make the top 20 is San Francisco at No. 18.

The 50 cities with the best quality of life (ties are listed with the same number):

1. Zurich
2. Vienna and Vancouver
4. Sydney and Geneva
6. Frankfurt, Auckland, Copenhagen, and Helsinki
10. Bern and Munich
12. Amsterdam, Melbourne, and Stockholm
15. Oslo, Dusseldorf, and Brussels
18. Luxembourg, Toronto, San Francisco, and Perth
22. Honolulu, Wellington, Berlin
25. Montreal, Nurnberg, Hamburg, Ottawa, Tokyo, and Brisbane
31. Paris, Seattle, Yokohama, and Calgary
35. Los Angeles, Dublin, Adelaide, Kobe, and Singapore
40. Lyon
41. Winston-Salem, London, Washington, D.C., Boston, New York, Chicago, and Madrid
48. Lexington, Pittsburgh, Osaka

On the other end of the scale is Baghdad, which ranked 213 out of 215, as it braces for what could be a massive U.S. assault. And where is it worse than Baghdad? According to the Mercer survey, that distinction goes to two impoverished African cities, Congo's Brazzaville (214) and Bangui in the Central African Republic (215).

"The gap between cities at the top and bottom of the table is still large," Slagin Parakatil, a senior researcher at Mercer, said in the news release announcing the survey results. "Economic and political unrest in Africa and Latin America has pushed many cities down in the rankings this year. It will take time for many of those African cities to recover from such prolonged periods of political and economic turmoil and to re-establish stable, law-enforcing democracies."

In a separate survey, Mercer ranked cities worldwide for personal safety based on crime levels, law enforcement, and internal stability. Some fun facts:

Luxembourg scored the highest for personal safety. the Central African Republic's Bangui scored the lowest; since a coup in 2001, the environment there has been highly volatile and dangerous. Milan, Athens, and Rome are the least safe cities in Western Europe, while Washington, D.C., ranked at the bottom in the United States. Canadian cities are the safest in North America, due to strict law enforcement and low crime rates.