The 2011 ‘most livable’ cities list is dominated by boring and expensive European cities
This year’s Mercer Quality of Living Survey is freshly out and as expats or potential expats we might all be interested in which cities are considered the best. Anyone who has seen this survey or ones like it in the past will not be surprised that the top spots are all dominated by very expensive cities, mostly in Europe, that very few people actually dream of moving to.
Vienna grabs the top spot this year, followed by Zurich, but Auckland landing in third place does spice things up a bit.
Here are the Top 10
- Vienna, Austria
- Zurich, Switzerland
- Auckland, New Zealand
- Munich, Germany
- Düsseldorf, Germany
- Vancouver, Canada
- Frankfurt, Germany
- Geneva, Switzerland
- Bern, Switzerland
- Copenhagen, Denmark
Livable versus lovable
Obviously, surveys like this are just a combination of the specific criteria that the organization finds important and the weight they give to each item. But how well do they reflect the popular reality of the situation? If you did a different survey asking people what they consider the ‘greatest’ city on earth is, chances are that list would be 10 completely different cities.
On that list you’d no doubt find New York City, London, Paris, Rome, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Barcelona, and maybe Berlin, which does actually come in at #17 on this year’s livable list.
Like a gated community
In the past year I’ve heard a few critiques and explanations of ‘livability’ rankings like this, and one thing that resonated with me is the fact that a rich gated city would certainly rank very high by this criteria. There would be good transportation, a few parks, it would be spotlessly clean, and it would be perfectly safe. As long as you could afford to live there, and if those were truly your goals in where to live, it would be utopia.
So why do most people want to move to London or Paris or New York then? In a way it seems like this livability ranking is no more than a way for boring cities to justify their boringness. Have you ever been to Frankfurt? Even for Germany it’s boring, but it’s filled with rich bankers and finance people so evidently it’s a good place to live.
What about climate or value?
For many of us expats we are perfectly willing to forego many of the key elements that make European-style cities livable in exchange for a better climate or for a better standard of living. If you have to work for a big corporation in order to afford a simple home and you have to bundle up for 5 or more months per year, how livable is that really?
I’d like to see different surveys that weigh different factors like weather and affordable/obtainable housing. For the potential expat those sorts of things are likely the keys to an appealing new home.
Going a bit further you could survey ethnic diversity, entertainment options, cuisine and food prices, or even how social a city is.
The criteria that Mercer uses feels like a formula to find cities where personality is discouraged in exchange for social order and predictability.