Still the 12th nicest city in the world

Not much movement at the top of the Mercer Human Resource Consulting “Most Livable Cities” rankings this year, with, like last year, Wellington coming in 12th, trailing our northern neighbours Auckland, who come in at a very credible 5th. In fact, there’s really no movement at all in the top 20, with Zurich and Geneva still 1st and 2nd respectively, Vancouver 3rd, Vienna 4th, before a bunch of German cities slot in below Auckland. The rankings are …

based on 39 key quality-of-life issues. They include political stability, currency-exchange regulations, political and media censorship, school quality, housing, the environment and public safety.

More of the table here.

Wellington: the world’s 12th nicest city

#12 with a bullet

A new survey published by Mercer Human Resource Consulting rates Wellington as the 12th best city to live in, based on the quality of living offered to residents. Auckland comes in a very respectable 5th, with the rest of the top 12 filled out by Zurich, Geneva, Vancouver, Vienna, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Bern, Sydney and Copenhagen.

American cities don’t get a show-in until Honolulu gets them off the mark at 27th (much to the delight of the Canadian press, who aren’t shy about pointing out their southern neighbours lower placings).

Can’t say the presence of Dusseldorf and Bern in the top 10 fills us with a great deal of confidence in the accuracy of the survey, though.