Because of the rapidly evolving, dramatic, and unprecedented changes in daily life happening worldwide due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mercer’s 2020 Quality of Living Ranking will be delayed. Please visit our COVID-19 resource page for employers for the latest updates on managing business continuity through this crisis.

Globally, Vienna tops the ranking for the 10th year running, closely followed by Zurich, the runner-up. This year, Mercer provides a separate ranking on personal safety. Western Europe dominates the ranking, with Luxembourg named as the safest city in the world.

2019 city ranking

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Rank City Country/region 1 Vienna Austria 2 Zürich Switzerland 3 Vancouver Canada 3 Munich Germany 3 Auckland New Zealand 6 Düsseldorf Germany 7 Frankfurt Germany 8 Copenhagen Denmark 9 Geneva Switzerland 10 Basel Switzerland

Rank City Country/Region 11 Sydney Australia 11 Amsterdam Netherlands 13 Berlin Germany 14 Bern Switzerland 15 Wellington New Zealand 16 Toronto Canada 17 Melbourne Australia 18 Luxembourg Luxembourg 19 Ottawa Canada 19 Hamburg Germany 21 Perth Australia 21 Montréal Canada 23 Nuremburg Germany 23 Stockholm Sweden 25 Oslo Norway 25 Singapore Singapore 27 Stuttgart Germany 28 Brussels Belgium 29 Adelaide Australia 30 Canberra Australia 31 Helsinki Finland 32 Calgary Canada 33 Dublin Ireland 34 San Francisco United States 35 Brisbane Australia 36 Boston United States 37 Lisbon Portugal 37 Honolulu United States 39 Paris France 40 Lyon France 41 Milan Italy 41 London United Kingdom 43 Barcelona Spain 44 New York United States 45 Edinburgh United Kingdom 46 Madrid Spain 46 Seattle United States 48 Glasgow United Kingdom 49 Kobe Japan 49 Tokyo Japan 49 Birmingham United Kingdom 49 Chicago United States 53 Washington United States 54 Philadelphia United States 55 Yokohama Japan 56 Rome Italy 57 Aberdeen United Kingdom 58 Osaka Japan 59 Pittsburgh United States 60 Leipzig Germany 61 Minneapolis United States 62 Nagoya Japan 63 Dallas United States 64 Belfast United Kingdom 64 Atlanta United States 66 Houston United States 66 Los Angeles United States 66 Miami United States 69 Prague Czech Republic 70 St. Louis United States 71 Hong Kong Hong Kong SAR 72 Pointe-à-Pitre Guadeloupe (France) 72 Detroit United States 74 Ljubljana Slovenia 74 Dubai United Arab Emirates 76 Budapest Hungary 77 Seoul South Korea 78 Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates 78 Montevideo Uruguay 80 Bratislava Slovakia 81 Vilnius Lithuania 82 Warsaw Poland 83 Port Louis Mauritius 84 Taipei Taiwan 85 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia 86 Limassol Cyprus 86 Tallinn Estonia 88 Durban South Africa 89 Athens Greece 90 Riga Latvia 91 Buenos Aires Argentina 92 San Juan Puerto Rico 93 Santiago Chile 94 Busan South Korea 95 Cape Town South Africa 96 Johannesburg South Africa 97 Panama City Panama 98 Zagreb Croatia 98 Victoria Seychelles 100 Wroclaw Poland 101 Johor Bahru Malaysia 101 Taichung Taiwan 103 Shanghai China 104 Tel Aviv Israel 105 Muscat Oman 106 Bandar Seri Begawan Brunei 107 Brasilia Brazil 108 San José Costa Rica 109 Bucharest Romania 110 Noumea New Caledonia 110 Doha Qata 112 Nassau Bahamas 113 Monterrey Mexico 114 Tunis Tunisia 115 Asunción Paraguay 116 Sofia Bulgaria 117 Rabat Morocco 118 Rio de Janeiro Brazil 119 São Paulo Brazil 120 Beijing China 120 Amman Jordan 122 Guangzhou China 122 Quito Ecuador 124 Casablanca Morocco 124 Lima Peru 126 Kuwait City Kuwait 127 Manaus Brazil 128 Bogotá Colombia 129 Mexico City Mexico 130 Istanbul Turkey 131 Windhoek Namibia 132 Shenzhen China 133 Bangkok Thailand 134 Chengdu China 135 Santo Domingo Dominican Republic 136 Manama Bahrain 137 Manila Philippines 138 Colombo Sri Lanka 139 Belgrade Serbia 140 Nanjing China 141 Gaborone Botswana 142 Jakarta Indonesia 143 Hyderabad India 143 Pune India 145 Xian China 146 Qingdao China 147 Port of Spain Trinidad & Tobago 148 Chongqing China 149 Bengaluru India 150 Lusaka Zambia 151 Chennai India 152 Kingston Jamaica 153 Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam 154 Mumbai India 155 Hanoi Vietnam 156 La Paz Bolivia 156 Sarajevo Bosnia-Herzegovina 158 Shenyang China 158 Guatemala City Guatemala 160 Kolkata India 161 Skopje Macedonia 162 New Delhi India 163 Dakar Senegal 164 Riyadh Saudi Arabia 165 Accra Ghana 166 Libreville Gabon 167 Moscow Russia 168 Jeddah Saudi Arabia 169 Jilin China 170 Yerevan Armenia 171 Vientiane People's Democratic Republic of Laos 172 Kampala Uganda 173 Kyiv Ukraine 174 St. Petersburg Russia 175 Tirana Albania 175 San Salvador El Salvador 177 Cairo Eqypt 177 Almaty Kazakhstan 179 Banjul Gambia 180 Managua Nicaragua 181 Blantyre Malawi 182 Cotonou Benin 183 Maputo Mozambique 184 Beirut Lebanon 185 Algiers Algeria 186 Nairobi Kenya 187 Tbilisi Georgia 188 Minsk Belarus 189 Djibouti Djibouti 189 Tegucigalpa Honduras 191 Kigali Rwanda 192 Havana Cuba 193 Yaounde Cameroon 194 Islamabad Pakistan 195 Baku Azerbaijan 196 Phnom Penh Cambodia 197 Douala Cameroon 198 Dar es Salaam Tanzania 199 Luanda Angola 199 Tehran Iran 201 Karachi Pakistan 202 Caracas Venezuela 203 Yangon Myanmar 203 Lome Togo 203 Tashkent Uzbekistan 206 Bishkek Kyrgyzstan 207 Lahore Pakistan 208 Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire 209 Addis Ababa Ethiopia 210 Harare Zimbabwe 211 Ashgabat Turkmenistan 212 Lagos Nigeria 213 Abuja Nigeria 214 Antananarivo Madagascar 215 Dushanbe Tajikistan 216 Ouagadougou Burkina Faso 217 Dhaka Bangladesh 218 Tripoli Libya 218 Niamey Niger 220 Bamako Mali 221 Nouakchott Mauritania 222 Conakry Guinea Republic 223 Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo 224 Brazzaville Congo 225 Damascus Syria 226 N'Djamena Chad 227 Khartoum Sudan 228 Port au Prince Haiti 229 Sana'a Yemen Arab Republic 230 Bangui Central African Republic 231 Baghdad Iraq

This ranking indicates differences in quality of living factors affecting expatriates in popular assignment destinations and should not be used as the basis for determining hardship premiums, as many complex and dynamic factors must be taken into account. Please contact us about developing your international assignment program.

Mercer and quality of living data

Mercer is the leading provider of data on quality of living for employees sent to work abroad. Ongoing research on the practicalities of daily life for these expatriate employees and their families forms the basis of our annual ranking of the quality of living in many prevalent assignment locations.