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Honolulu surprises me. I just got back from there, and while it's a nice city it's not as good as some others in the US. The traffic there can be pretty bad, and while there's a bus system, there's no train system at all. It's very expensive there too all around. There are walkable places of course (like Waikiki), but I found most of it to not be very walkable to be honest.
It's not that cold here in the winter. It's about 7 degrees colder than NYC in the winter, but honestly? I grew up in Minnesota and went to school in Iowa. Chicago is a complete ****ing walk in the park compared to most of the upper midwest. Trust me.
Location: In a Galaxy far, far away called Germany
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Quote:
Originally Posted by marothisu
It's not that cold here in the winter. It's about 7 degrees colder than NYC in the winter, but honestly? I grew up in Minnesota and went to school in Iowa. Chicago is a complete ****ing walk in the park compared to most of the upper midwest. Trust me.
Minnesota!! Yikes! I am a winter wimp these days. I used to love it, but unless I am skiing, I would just assume have my nice warm/dry climate ala California or the Med. Chicago is a great city tho.
1. Singapore
2. Frankfurt
3. Munich
4. Copenhagen
5. Düsseldorf
6. Hong Kong
6. London
8. Sydney
9. Hamburg
9. Düsseldorf
11. Yokohama
12. Paris
13. Atlanta
13. Montreal
15. Dallas
16. Toronto
16. Vienna
18. Helsinki
18. Oslo
18. Stockholm
18. Stuttgart
Quote:
*Mercer’s City Infrastructure Ranking 2012 is based on measures of: Electricity, Water Availability, Telephone, Mail, Public Transportation, Traffic Congestion & Airport Effectiveness.
Furthermore, some more details about the "Quality of Living" ranking:
Quote:
Mercer evaluates local living conditions in more than 460 cities it surveys worldwide. We analyze living conditions according to 39 factors, grouped in 10 categories: Political and social environment (political stability, crime, law enforcement)
Honolulu surprises me. I just got back from there, and while it's a nice city it's not as good as some others in the US. The traffic there can be pretty bad, and while there's a bus system, there's no train system at all. It's very expensive there too all around. There are walkable places of course (like Waikiki), but I found most of it to not be very walkable to be honest.
A simple look at the top cities suggests that cost of living isn't weighted very heavily in this ranking, if at all.
Based on this, the Top 3 countries would be: Germany, Australia, and Canada.
Important details:
And some of the worst cities to live in:
lmao @ Detroit. Who woulda thunk ?
The worst of the worst is: Baghdad, Iraq at #221.
To be honest I'm surprised to see Tbilissi so low on the list.
I thought that once they were free from "Russian oppression" and became the US ally instead, their life would have drastically improved, but that doesn't seem to be the case...
( I mean to be just a few spots away from Port O Prince Haiti... )
12-06-2012, 11:35 AM
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That is a valuable and important topic that affects every person’s life and encompasses a lot of existence and what people need for their lives.
The website link rating cities in the world for quality of life said “Mercer's index survey results are based on an analysis of local living conditions comprising 39 factors in 10 categories.” What city has world's best quality of life? - CNN.com
It could have been more specific about all of those 39 factors/indicators and 10 categories that it used to rank various cities in the world.
Another separate website link related to that: Defining 'Quality of Living' goes a lot more into specifics and clarity with defining quality of living and what it uses to quantify/measure that.
Here is the 10 categories and you can see all of the 39 indicators in the second website link:
Socio-Cultural Environment
Recreation
Consumer Goods
Housing
Natural Environment
Political and Social Environment
Schools and Education
Economic Environment
Medical and Health Considerations
Public Services and Transport
I agree with around 70% of what it says there, but I don’t agree with 30% of that.
There is also even more possible indicators that could be used to make it more accurate. For 3 new categories, I would add: 1. Scenery/Aesthetics, 2. Energy/Vibes/Impressions/Pace of Day to Day Life, and 3. How Peaceful/Laid Back/Easygoing/Easy to Find Clarity and Contentment in that place.
However, I guess that starts reaching subjective levels with some of the new categories I would add. There is objective vs. subjective standards for quality of life with universal standards for everyone vs. individual preferences.
It was overall a good enough/decent but almost mediocre attempt for the Mercer Index to focus on this topic and it had to start somewhere.
12-06-2012, 12:20 PM
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For this separate post, I’ll just talk about the cities they ranked and not about all of those specific categories/indicators they used with the definition for quality of living.
These are all of the cities I agree with for being part of the top 30 (17 out of 30): Vienna, Zurich, Vancouver, Geneva, Copenhagen, Sydney, Amsterdam, Toronto, Hamburg, Berlin, Melbourne, Brussels, Montreal, Singapore, Honolulu, Adelaide, Paris.
Here is all of the cities I don’t agree with that should not be part of the top 30: Auckland, Munich, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Wellington, Ottawa, Nuremburg, Canberra, Stuttgart, San Francisco.
Wow, it appears they just included one French city in that entire ranking system with Paris yet it included a ridiculous amount of German cities such as Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Nuremburg, Stuttgart, Munich?
Lyon, Grenoble, Nice, Lille, Strasbourg should have been contained in the ranks and I can see them being able to qualify for the top 30. They have a higher quality of life and are more exciting than those German cities I said.
I would say France has the highest amount of cities that could qualify for the top 30. Germany would still rank high for countries with number of cities on the list but there is no way I see it as number 1 for that. I see it more as number 5 to number 10 after France, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, USA.
For American cities, Seattle and Portland have a higher quality of life than San Francisco for cost of living/affordability, safety/crime rate, density levels/usually more space, and housing options, so I would include Seattle or Portland in the Top 30 and have San Francisco a bit lower on the list.
Paris does have an overall higher quality of life compared to other very large, crowded, heavily populated cities such as Paris vs. New York City/London/Tokyo.
Usually the very large, crowded, heavily populated cities can have some problems with overall quality of life. For small sized cities, it is kind of the opposite and sometimes they just don't offer enough. Medium sized populated cities can usually offer the best compromise and balance between both sides of the continuum, and that is not a surprise the majority of cities in the top 30 are medium sized cities.
Singapore is the only Asian city that made the top 30. Some more Asian cities should have been included such as Taipei, Osaka, Kyoto, Busan, and maybe Hong Kong and Bangkok.
Wow, it appears they just included one French city in that entire ranking system with Paris yet it included a ridiculous amount of German cities such as Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Nuremburg, Stuttgart, Munich?
Lyon, Grenoble, Nice, Lille, Strasbourg should have been contained in the ranks and I can see them being able to qualify for the top 30. They have a higher quality of life and are more exciting than those German cities I said.
I would say France has the highest amount of cities that could qualify for the top 30. Germany would still rank high for countries with number of cities on the list but there is no way I see it as number 1 for that. I see it more as number 5 to number 10 after France, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, USA.
They ranked 221 cities, of course there are other French cities. Lyon is actually #39 on the list, and a few other cities are likely there, but out of the top 50. A common criticism of the Mercer ranking is its heavy country component, so cities of a given country are often clustered together. Case in point the US have no city in the top 27 but then 8 in the next 21. Tokyo, Kobe, Yokohama are 44, 48, 49. and so on..
Not sure I understand your last comment. Are you saying Switzerland and Austria should have more cities in the top 30 than Germany? You want them to rank Lausanne and Graz??
Quote:
Originally Posted by
These are all of the cities I agree with for being part of the top 30 (17 out of 30): Vienna, Zurich, Vancouver, Geneva, Copenhagen, Sydney, Amsterdam, Toronto, Hamburg, Berlin, Melbourne, Brussels, Montreal, Singapore, Honolulu, Adelaide, Paris.
Here is all of the cities I don’t agree with that should not be part of the top 30: Auckland, Munich, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Wellington, Ottawa, Nuremburg, Canberra, Stuttgart, San Francisco.
Man, you sure agree and disagree with a lot of stuff. How many of those cities have you actually been to? what's wrong with Auckland?
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