April 11, 2006

Auckland in 5th place as best place to live in the world

The annual Mercer World-wide Quality of Living Survey is out. It covers more than 350 cities to help governments and multinational companies place employees on international assignments.
Auckland is rated 5th in the world after Zurich, Geneva, Vancouver and Vienna, and up from 8th last year. This is an incredible result, considering it has the worst public transportation system and the worst sprawl of any developed world city. It certainly doesn't feel as a world class city to live in (that's why I live on an island 25km away) due to its rather mediocre facilities and cultural treasures. But then that may be of no importance to multinational expat employees the survey is aiming at.
Personally, if money, time or job restrictions were of no import I'd rather live in Madrid, Copenhagen, Paris, Edinburgh or Luxembourg. But given those choices are not really available to me, I'm quite happy on my little rock in the South Pacific. I hope you are happy too wherever you live and if not, well, get out.

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