Vienna is best city to live and work, says survey

Mainland European cities are the most desirable places to work despite having some of the highest levels of tax in the world, according to a quality of living survey published today.

Thirteen of the top 20 cities in which to live and work are in Europe, including Munich, Copenhagen, Vienna, Brussels, Frankfurt, Stockholm and Berlin, according to research by consultancy firm Mercer.

The survey studied factors including health services, political stability, traffic congestion, crime, media censorship, pollution, mail services, and even the variety and quality of restaurants and theatre. It does not factor in the cost of living.

London, which is ranked 38th, scores well for public services, recreation and telecommunications, but is let down by security concerns and pollution. Glasgow and Birmingham are the next most desirable British cities, jointly ranked 56th.

The Mercer findings, designed to help governments and companies put a financial value on moving workers from one country to another, come amid criticism from UK business leaders of the government's plans to introduce a 50p tax rate for the country's highest earners.

Among the super-rich quick to criticise the new tax band have been Sir Richard Branson, former trade minister Lord Jones, bookstore entrepreneur Tim Waterstone, Peter Hargreaves, founder of Hargreaves Lansdown, hedge fund veteran Stanley Fink and entrepreneur Hugh Osmond.

Osmond, whose business interests have ranged from PizzaExpress to Pearl insurance group, said: "A lot of people will be off. I think it's highly unlikely that I will continue to have the UK as my country of residence."

But Slagin Parakatil, who compiled the research for Mercer, said tax changes in the UK were unlikely to alter the strategies of multinational companies in deciding where to deploy staff. "I don't think tax would be an issue. If you need to send someone, you will definitely send someone, no matter whether the tax regime is high or not."

Beyond Europe, tops draws were Vancouver, Ottawa and Toronto, Auckland, Wellington, Sydney and Melbourne, where tax rates have been broadly comparable with Britain's in recent years.

The most desirable US cities are Honolulu, San Francisco and Boston, ranked 29th, 30th and 35th respectively.

Top of the quality of life rankings is Vienna, which pushed last year's lead city, Zurich, into second spot. At the other end of the 215-city league table, 16 of the bottom 20 are to be found in Africa. Among them are Brazzaville, Khartoum and Kinshasa.

• This article was amended on Tuesday 28 April 2009. We referred to Sana'a as an African city. It is the capital of Yemen in Southwest Asia. This has been corrected.