Global Culture » perth http://global-culture.org Sustainable, Memorable, Livable Mon, 03 Jan 2011 05:49:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 liveability rankings 2009 http://global-culture.org/liveability-rankings-2009/ http://global-culture.org/liveability-rankings-2009/#comments Wed, 10 Jun 2009 01:37:34 +0000 juan http://global-culture.org/blog/?p=627 Not much has changed since the last time I reported on the Liveability report from The Economist Intelligence Unit in 2007. Vancouver is still the best place to live overall according to the 2009 ranking:

Vancouver, Canada Vienna, Austria Melbourne, Australia Toronto, Canada Perth, Australia Calgary, Canada Helsinki, Finland Geneva, Switzerland Sydney, Australia Zurich, Switzerland

I’m finding the Mercer’s 2009 Quality of Living survey much more useful as it provides a special ranking for hubs with the best infrastructure. Note that Mercer’ survey is meant to be used as a comparison tool to determine compensation packages for companies with personnel abroad. Yet, as usual, it is fun to make a list of the cities where you would want to live next, right?

Here are the Top 5 cities in each region, according to the Mercer survey:

Americas Asia Pacific Europe Middle East & Africa Vancouver Auckland Vienna Dubai Toronto Sydney Zurich Port Louis Ottawa Wellington Geneva Abu Dhabi Montreal Melbourne Dusseldorf Cape Town Calgary Perth Munich Port Elizabeth ]]> Not much has changed since the last time I reported on the Liveability report from The Economist Intelligence Unit in 2007. Vancouver is still the best place to live overall according to the 2009 ranking:

  1. Vancouver, Canada
  2. Vienna, Austria
  3. Melbourne, Australia
  4. Toronto, Canada
  5. Perth, Australia
  6. Calgary, Canada
  7. Helsinki, Finland
  8. Geneva, Switzerland
  9. Sydney, Australia
  10. Zurich, Switzerland

I’m finding the Mercer’s 2009 Quality of Living survey much more useful as it provides a special ranking for hubs with the best infrastructure. Note that Mercer’ survey is meant to be used as a comparison tool to determine compensation packages for companies with personnel abroad. Yet, as usual, it is fun to make a list of the cities where you would want to live next, right?

Here are the Top 5 cities in each region, according to the Mercer survey:

Americas Asia Pacific Europe Middle East & Africa
Vancouver Auckland Vienna Dubai
Toronto Sydney Zurich Port Louis
Ottawa Wellington Geneva Abu Dhabi
Montreal Melbourne Dusseldorf Cape Town
Calgary Perth Munich Port Elizabeth
]]> http://global-culture.org/liveability-rankings-2009/feed/ 3 the economist on liveability http://global-culture.org/the-economist-on-liveability/ http://global-culture.org/the-economist-on-liveability/#comments Thu, 23 Aug 2007 19:18:57 +0000 juan http://global-culture.org/blog/2007/08/23/the-economist-on-liveability/ I’m sure is not because Monocle released their most liveable cities report just a month ago, but now is The Economist releasing their Liveability rankings with the article Where the grass is greener. While Monocle’s report came in the form of a wonderful edition, perfectly written and documented, the Economist Intelligence Unit barely delivers a table with the rankings without much analysis behind. True, Monocle used criteria such “fair balance of sunny and warm days” and “availability of drinks after hours”, but the overall delivery convinced. According to The Economist The survey takes over 40 factors into consideration which are weighted across five different categories: Stability; Healthcare; Culture & Environment; Education; and Infrastructure. Across the survey a mixture of quantitative and qualitative data are used, which are combined to give an overall Quality of Life Index rating.

. However I wasn’t able to find such factors anywhere, not even after paying for the full report. Anyway, this are the top 10 according to them, nothing that we haven’t seen before:

Vancouver, Canada Melbourne, Australia Vienna, Austria Perth, Australia Toronto, Canada Adelaide, Australia Sydney, Australia Copenhagen, Denmark Geneva, Switzerland Zurich, Switzerland

Still, I never get tired of ranking cities and feeling a bit proud on behalf [...]]]> I’m sure is not because Monocle released their most liveable cities report just a month ago, but now is The Economist releasing their Liveability rankings with the article Where the grass is greener. While Monocle’s report came in the form of a wonderful edition, perfectly written and documented, the Economist Intelligence Unit barely delivers a table with the rankings without much analysis behind. True, Monocle used criteria such “fair balance of sunny and warm days” and “availability of drinks after hours”, but the overall delivery convinced. According to The Economist

The survey takes over 40 factors into consideration which are weighted across five different categories: Stability; Healthcare; Culture & Environment; Education; and Infrastructure. Across the survey a mixture of quantitative and qualitative data are used, which are combined to give an overall Quality of Life Index rating.

.
However I wasn’t able to find such factors anywhere, not even after paying for the full report. Anyway, this are the top 10 according to them, nothing that we haven’t seen before:

  1. Vancouver, Canada
  2. Melbourne, Australia
  3. Vienna, Austria
  4. Perth, Australia
  5. Toronto, Canada
  6. Adelaide, Australia
  7. Sydney, Australia
  8. Copenhagen, Denmark
  9. Geneva, Switzerland
  10. Zurich, Switzerland

Still, I never get tired of ranking cities and feeling a bit proud on behalf of those cities that I’ve come to know one way or another.

Update: after corresponding with the Editor of the report at the Economist Intelligence Unit I was given access to the full report which documents their methodology. The ranking is based on 5 categories:

  • Stability (25%): crime, conflict
  • Healthcare (20%): private & public healthcare
  • Culture & Environment (25%): weather, freedoms, culture, food, goods
  • Education (10%): private & public education
  • Infrastructure (20%): public transportation, international connections, housing, services, telecomminications

As suspected, their analysis is far more methodic but is intended to help companies planning to expand make decisions about how to compensate workers being transferred.

The survey was conducted in June 2007 so if you’re curious about the ranking of your city, send me a note and I’ll share the data.

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