Vienna.
That’s according to Mercer’s hot-off-the-presses 2009 “quality of life” ratings of 215 cities.
Following Vienna, in order, are: Zurich, Geneva, Vancouver, and Auckland.
Paris? 33rd. London? 38th. New York? 49th.
Tops in the U.S.? Honolulu, 28th; San Francisco, 29th; and Boston, 37th.
Worst city in the world to live in? Big surprise: Baghdad.
(Here‘s a list of the top 50.)
Of course, such ratings have a huge judgmental element. That is, the data that go into them are real and reasonably reliable, but the real question is what should be measured in the first place. When these ratings are done for U.S., cities, places like Omaha usually dominate the top of the list. Nothing against Omaha, but is that really where you would prefer, in your heart of hearts, to live? (And it’s no coincidence that such ratings tend to be done by places like — you guessed it — the University of Nebraska.) Anyway, here‘s some information about what went into Mercer’s ratings.