http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2815625.stm

WORLD'S BEST CITIES

Zurich: 1 of 215
Geneva, Vienna, Vancouver: joint 2nd
Auckland, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Bern: joint 5th

Cities in Europe, Australia and New Zealand continued to rank highest in the table, while poor and war-torn African cities languished at the bottom.

The annual survey of 215 cities by Mercer Human Resources Consulting placed Zurich ahead of another Swiss city, Geneva, which shared second place with the Austrian capital, Vienna, and Vancouver in Canada. They were closely followed by Auckland in New Zealand, the Danish capital of Copenhagen, Frankfurt in Germany and the Swiss capital, Berne, with 105.5 points.

New York ended up being 44th on the list. Among other notable cities London was at 39th spot and Tokyo was ranked 26th.

The "quality of life" survey based its table on 39 criteria ranging from political, social and economic factors, taking New York as the benchmark with the base score of 100. Such factors as quality of health, education and transport services were also taken into account during the study, conducted between September and November 2002. Yes, I always knew, life's good.

Wasn't sure if this belongs to Whatnots.

I can't respect a survey like that if they don't take into account the ready availability of a good corned beef on rye... :roll:

Hey, we got swiss cheese and fondue in aboundance. :D ;)

But I seriously wonder why Copenhagen hasn't made the first place. It is an unbelievable beautyfull city. Their state library is an archetonic dream, they got a river where one can paddle on a canou, some palaces, a chain-smoking queen, Smö-brö, Carslberg, great shopping opportunities and .... ahm .... scandinavian women ?

The reason Copenhagen isnt number 1 is that it sucks to live there so to speak. It is hell to get an apartment and if you do it costs more than you are willing to pay. There are still plenty of apartment houses that dont have toilets in every flat, where you have to share a toilet with the rest of the house. I think these are factors that play in its position. =)
However, it is a beautiful city and I like to go there a few times a year to just stroll around.

Isn't Warsaw (Polish one, not the many you have in US) #12987 or something like that?

Cost will always be a huge downer on the major cities, particularly capital cities.

Interestingly I note that Baghdad was rated 213 out of the 215 in the survey. I wonder if it might not have slipped a couple of notches over the last couple of months.....

In that article they didn't say how they rated the cities did they? Just think how many ways there would be to rate how good a city is, there are thousands of them.