Five Cdn. cities tops in quality of life rankings

Five Canadian communities have made the top 25 list of the most livable cities in the world.

For the second straight year, Vancouver placed third behind Geneva and Zurich, Switzerland. Toronto was 14th, Ottawa 20th, Montreal 22nd, and Calgary came in at 25th.

Another distinction earned these cities bragging rights in the worldwide rankings.

According to the quality of life survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, Canadian cities are tops in the rankings for safety and security in North America.

"All of the Canadian cities covered by the survey appear in the top 20 rankings for personal safety and security. Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver rank jointly in position 18 with scores of 112," Mercer Human Resource Consulting said in a statement.

"The top-ranking cities for personal safety and security are in politically stable countries with good international relations and sustainable economic growth," Slagin Parakatil, Senior Researcher at Mercer said in the statement.

"Most of the low-scoring cities are in countries with civil unrest, little law enforcement, and high levels of crime."

According to the survey, the world's least secure city is Baghdad.

The statement says Baghdad is the least attractive city for expatriates and its low score is "due to the recurrent threat of attacks against people, multinational organisations, and government institutions in the area."

Other low-ranking cities include Abidjan in the Ivory Coast, Bangui in Central African Republic, and Port Harcourt and Lagos in Nigeria.

The analysis was based on an evaluation of criteria including political, social, economic, and environmental factors; personal safety and health; education; and transport.

The information was gathered largely between September and November 2004.

Published on: 2005-03-13 (10184 reads)