Mercer’s 2010 Quality of Living survey has revealed Vienna as the city that scores the highest.

Baghdad has been declared the city with the worst quality of life, according to Mercer’s 2010 Quality of Living Survey, while Vienna has retained the top spot.

In total, 221 cities were researched, based on a point-scoring index ranked against a base city – New York – which has an index score of 100. The results revealed Vienna as scoring 108.6 points, while Baghdad only scored 14.7.

Mercer, an HR and financial advice company, carries out the research every year in an effort to help governments and multinational organisations compensate employees fairly when placing them on international assignments.

Making up the top five countries offering the best quality of living were Zurich (second), Geneva (third), while Vancouver and Auckland came joint fourth. The first city from the UK to appear in the charts was London, which came 39th in the rankings, and the first US city to appear was Honolulu at number 31.

Slagin Parakatil, Senior Researcher at Mercer, commented: “Quality of living standards remained relatively stable on a global level throughout 2009 and the first half of 2010, but in certain regions and countries the economic recession had a noticeable impact on the business climate.

“Despite the economic downturn and companies’ efforts to contain costs, quality of living and hardship premiums remain important means of compensating expatriates for differences in living conditions. However, companies are more inclined to review the measurement of such allowances to ensure they are cost-effective.”

Although Baghdad remained at the bottom of the table, its score had improved slightly from the previous year – up 0.3 points. However, the country still fared significantly worse than the city that came second bottom – Central African Republic’s Bangui, which scored 27.4 points.

For a full breakdown and analysis of the survey, visit: http://www.mercer.com/qualityofliving