This will come as no surprise to many Vancouverites: the city has once again come in first place in North America in Mercer’s annual list ranking quality of living.
In addition to taking top spot on this continent, Vancouver is ranked fifth globally – the same position as last year. In fact, the top five cities – in order: Vienna, Zurich, Auckland, Munich and Vancouver – are the same as in 2014.
Cities around the world were compared and ranked based on 10 criteria, including the political and social environment, socio-cultural factors, housing and natural environment.
“The Quality of Living Survey assesses quality of living conditions to help multinational companies and other employers fairly compensate employees when placing them on international assignments,” Mercer said in a release.
Image source: Mercer
Canadian cities fared well overall, with four cities making the top 25 around the world: Vancouver (5th place), Toronto (15), Ottawa (16), Montreal (24) and Calgary (33).
By comparison, the highest-ranked city in the United States was San Francisco, at number 27, followed by Boston (34) and Honolulu (36).
“Canada continues to offer a high quality of living for residents and expatriate employees,” said Eleana Rodriguez, market business leader, Mercer Canada’s information solutions group. “Major Canadian cities tend to rank highly due to Canada’s favourable political and social environment, as well as medical and health considerations.
“Our quality of living plays an important role as we continue to see more multinational corporations open doors in Canada, providing significant opportunities.”
The results of this study are at odds with a Vancity report released in October 2014 that said Vancouver’s high cost of living is damaging residents’ wellbeing. Almost nine out of 10 respondents to a survey said they would like to own a home but can’t afford to buy one. Many residents have cut their educations short, don’t enroll their children in extracurricular activities and work in jobs they dislike just in order to make ends meet.
Almost a quarter of Vancouverites, said Vancity, have stopped saving for retirement because they simply can’t afford it – a fact the bank reiterated in a February report that said three out of four people under 45 may be unable to retire if they don’t change their retirement strategies.
Along with Vancouver, Auckland (3) and Sydney (10) were the only non-European cities in the top 10.
The city with the lowest ranking in the world was Baghdad.
