Hyderabad best Indian city in terms of quality of living: Mercer

MUMBAI: Vienna has been rated as the city with the best quality of living for the third consecutive time by Mercer’s Quality of Living rankings 2016 while Hyderabad has emerged the best in terms of quality of living in India for the second year in a row.

Hyderabad has slipped one rank from last year to 139 in the overall rankings, on account of increased power disruptions, and extreme weather situation.

Other Indian cities rank much lower down the order with the next Indian city, Pune, ranked at 144. The survey highlights that Indian cities haven’t made much progress on the quality of living scale, scoring nearly the same as they did last year. Over time, cities like Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai have emerged as cities of choice due to factors such as relatively lower crime rate, lesser air pollution and improved options for international and reputable English speaking schools. Both Hyderabad and Pune cities rank higher for quality of living than the country’s more traditional business centres, Mumbai and New Delhi ranked at 152 and 161 respectively.

Interestingly, the survey suggests that Indian cities are safer than most others in South Asia. While the ranking of Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo is above Hyderabad by 6 ranks, at 132, Dhaka in Bangladesh is ranked 216 and Pakistan’s Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi are ranked 193, 199 and 202 respectively.

Mercer’s Quality of Living surveys provide valuable data as well as hardship premium recommendations for over 450 cities throughout the world; this year’s ranking includes 230 of these cities. The parameters taken into account for the survey include political and social environment, medical care and health considerations, public services, recreation facilities and natural environment amongst others.

Vienna continues its reign in the top spot for overall quality of living, followed by Zurich (2), Auckland (3), and Munich (4).Vancouver (5) is North America’s highest ranking city, and Singapore is the highest ranking Asian city, holding 26th place.

Mercer’s survey also identifies the personal safety ranking for the full list of cities; it is based on internal stability, crime figures levels, performance of local law enforcement, and the home country’s relationship with other countries. Luxembourg tops the personal safety list and is followed by Bern, Helsinki, and Zurich – all tied in 2nd place. Baghdad (230) and Damascus (229) are the world’s least safe cities according to the ranking. The safest Indian cities are Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore – all ranked 113, 121 and 123 respectively.