A latest survey listing the best places in the world when it comes to quality of life has ranked Canada’s Vancouver as fifth best place overall to live in, while it dominated the ranks for the entire North American region. Around the world, Vienna, Austria remained at the top of Mercer’s annual Quality of Living Rankings in 2015, boasting the best quality of living for expatriates. In the Pacific, New Zealand and Australian cities are some of the highest-ranked cities globally, with Auckland in 3rd, Sydney in 10th, Wellington in 12th, and Melbourne in 16th.

For 2015, Vancouver ranked fifth for the second consecutive year, after Vienna, Zurich, Auckland and Munich. Eleana Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for Mercer, said Vancouver landed on the top five because of its favourable social and political climate. The city’s high standard of healthy living and medical care also ranked good.

Mercer’s annual survey looks at the climate, housing conditions, and politics among other indicators to find the most desirable places that has the best quality of living standards. The company reports information and hardship premium recommendations for more than 440 cities, while the ranking covers 230 of these cities. Luc Lalonde, Mercer's Montreal-based principal, said the list primarily targets multinational companies that dispatch employees across the globe.

Although Vancouver has notorious high housing prices, it still managed to land in the top five because of its good scores across the board, specially on the natural environment where the city was “really strong." Vancouver has a better, milder climate compared with Ottawa (14th overall), Toronto (15), and Montreal (22) that have harsh winters.

Researchers use 10 criteria to come up with the desirable places that have the best quality of living: political and social affairs, economics, health and sanitation, culture, education, public infrastructure, recreation, availability of consumer goods, housing and the natural environment.

Mercer also came up with a list of select cities that are evolving as business centres around the world:

· Durban, South Africa (85) – Growing manufacturing and shipping centre

· Cheonan, South Korea (98) – A tech and university centre

· Taichung, Taiwan (99) – Rich cultural traditions have helped bring in key local and international industries

· Wroclaw, Poland (100) – Strong talent pool and good infrastructure

· Manaus, Brazil (127) – Manaus attracts businesses as a Free Economic Zone

· Hyderabad, India (138) – Home to many in the service industry (IT, insurance, and financial companies)

· Chongqing, China (142) – Major manufacturing (esp. automotive industry) centre and transportation hub

· Xi’an, China (142) – An economic and technology development zone

· Pune, India (145) – Hosts IT and automotive companies

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