Europe top of the world charts for quality of life (2002)

University of ZurichA survey published on Monday shows Zurich as the world's most desirable city in which to live, knocking last year's winner Vancouver into a second place-tie with Vienna.

Swiss cities dominated the list of 215 centres ranked according to quality of life, with Geneva tying Sydney for fourth place and Bern finishing 10th, in the annual survey by human resources consultancy William M. Mercer. Retaining the unwelcome distinction of the world's worst city in which to live was Brazzaville, Congo.

Thirty-nine key criteria were used to judge cities' desirability, including the political, economic, natural and socio-cultural environments, healthcare, education, housing, transport, shopping and recreation.

New York was used as the baseline for comparison. The Big Apple finished 41st, equal with London, Washington, Boston, Chicago and Madrid.

"Though the world's living standards have risen slightly since last year, the gap between cities at the top and the bottom of the table is still large," said Slagin Parakatil, senior researcher at Mercer.

"The basic comforts of life, hygiene and personal safety are the main differentiators, and these are often lacking in developing countries. The gap is magnified by economic and political instability," he said.

Rounding out the top 10 were Frankfurt, Helsinki, Auckland and Copenhagen, while scraping bottom were Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, at 209, and Baghdad at 211.

In the environmental stakes, Calgary, Canada, finished top while pollution-choked Mexico City ranked last.

3月11日世界知名人力资源公司William Mercer公布了"世界城市适宜居住情况"的调查结果，瑞士的苏黎世位居榜首，去年排名首位的的温哥华和维也纳并列第二。

这项年度调查根据各个城市的生活质量对215个城市进行了排名，其中瑞士的城市在"最适宜居住的城市"排名榜上占据了大多数席位。悉尼和日内瓦并列第四，波恩排在第十位。在调查报告中，刚果共和国首都布拉柴维尔继续成为"世界上最不适合居住的城市"。

这项调查根据39项评选标准对215个世界城市进行了评估，其中包括政治、经济、自然和人文环境、医疗、教育、住房、交通、购物和娱乐等因素。

通常纽约是划分"适合居住"和"不适合居住"的分水岭，在这次的排行榜中纽约和伦敦、华盛顿、波士顿、芝加哥、马德里并列排在第41位。

Mercer公司的高级研究员斯莱金·帕拉卡特迪尔说："尽管世界各个城市的生活水平较去年稍有提高，但是名列前茅的城市和排名最后的那些城市之间的差距还是很大。"

帕拉卡特迪尔说："主要差距表现在生活的舒适度、卫生状况和个人安全方面，这些往往是发展中国家所欠缺的，而（发展中国家）经济的不发达和政治的不稳定则将差距进一步拉大"。

排在前十名的城市还有法兰克福、赫尔辛基、奥克兰和哥本哈根，而布基纳法索首都瓦加杜古排到了209名，巴格达位居211。

如果仅就环境状况进行排名，加拿大的卡尔加里将名列第一，而城市污染严重的墨西哥城则排在了末尾。