TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- Taipei and Taichung ranked higher than any city in China, including the tier one cities of Shanghai and Beijing, in Mercer's quality of living ranking released yesterday (March 20).

Mercer, the world's largest human resources consulting firm, yesterday released it's 20th annual "Quality of Living Ranking," with Vienna taking the top spot for the ninth year in a row, followed by Zurich (2), Auckland (3), Munich (4), Vancouver (5), Dusseldorf (6), Frankfurt (7), Geneva (8), Copenhagen (9) and Basel (10) rounding out the top ten.

In Asia, the top finisher was Singapore with a ranking of 25, while Taipei came in at 84 and Taichung was rated at 101. However, the Taiwanese cities finished ahead of all cities in China, with the closest finishers being Shanghai (103), Beijing (119), Chengdu ( 133) and Nanjing (140).

Taipei moved up a spot from its ranking of 85 last year, while Taichung remained steady at 101.

To generate its rankings, Mercer assesses the living conditions of 450 cities around the world based on 39 factors grouped into 10 categories including: political and social environment, economic environment, socio-cultural environment, medical and health considerations, schools and education, public services and transportation, recreation, consumer goods, housing and natural environment.