Dubai tops region's cities for best quality of living

Dubai has topped in the region's city list with the best quality of living, according to a survey released by Mercer yesterday.

The main reason is that Dubai's transport facilities have witnessed improvements, with the development of its road infrastructure and expansion of its international airport.

Dubai is up six places in the ranking in the Mercer 2009 Quality of Living Survey – from 87.1 to 89.3 in 2009. Abu Dhabi is three places up from 84.8 to 87.1 in 2009.

Dubai also tops in the region in city infrastructure index. It ranks 35th with infrastructure index of 99.2, while Abu Dhabi is at 75 with 92.1. In the index, most of the region's cities rank below 100 with Port Louis in Mauritius (92) and Cairo (93). City Infrastructure Ranking 2009 includes electricity, water availability, telephone, mail, public transport, traffic congestion and airport.

Overall security continues to be a concern in other Middle Eastern countries. However, countries such as Kuwait, the UAE and Bahrain continue to witness improvement in living standards in areas such as education, the economic environment and housing, said the survey.

Cape Town in South Africa, previously the city in the region with the best quality of living, has dropped substantially in this year's ratings (from 80 to 87). This move follows violent riots in South Africa's main cities in 2008.

Vienna has passed Zurich to take the top spot as the world's city with the best quality of living.

The rankings are based on a point-scoring index. Cities are ranked against New York as the base city with an index score of 100.

Mercer is a consulting firm and wholly-owned subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies. Its Quality of Living ranking covers 215 cities and is conducted to help governments and companies place staff on global assignments.

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