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The annual report conducted by the leading global HR consultancy uses New York as a base city to compare and rank 221 cities around the world. Mercer conducts the survey to help governments understand the specific factors that affect their residents' quality of living and for multi-national companies to compensate employees fairly when placing them on international assignments.
The study looks at various elements that include political, social, economic, socio-cultural, along with medical and health considerations, schools and education, public services and transportation, recreation, consumer goods, housing and the natural environment. This year's index also set out to uncover cities with the best infrastructure to find a correlation between the level of substructure and how it affects quality of living.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi stand highest among the region and Arab countries in quality of living relative to other cities in the region. Doha ranked (106), Manama (126), Kuwait City (119), Riyadh (157) and Muscat (103). Manama (126), Cairo (141) and Damascus (197) had the highest drops in the region (dropping 13, 6 and 18 places respectively). This downfall is due to unstable internal affairs and political unrest.
Globally, Vienna, retained the top spot again this year, followed by Zurich second and Auckland third. Lowest among the global rankings are Bangui, Central African Republic (220) and Baghdad, Iraq (221).
That the two UAE cities maintained and exceeded their high ranking shows that development is up to par with major cities around the world, providing a favourable atmosphere for employees to thrive, not only in work but in the life they will ultimately lead there as well.
This year's special area of focus, City Infrastructure, took account of factors such as electricity supply, water availability, telephone and mail services, public transportation, traffic congestion and the availability of international flights from local airports and uncovered cities with the best infrastructure.
Dubai took an impressive lead among Arab states to rank 34 in the world, reaffirming the city's position as an international hub up to par with cities around the world. It beat out Geneva (47), Miami (48), San Francisco (55), Barcelona (57), Rome (72) and Kuala Lampur (77), surpassing major global cities in terms of infrastructure readiness and development.