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28 March 2024

Dubai tops region in quality living

The Jumeirah Beach Residence area in Dubai. The city ranks high among cities with a high quality of living. (EB FILE)

Published
By Piyush Pandey

Dubai retained its top slot for offering the best quality of living among the GCC countries followed by Abu Dhabi, according to Mercer's '2010 Quality of Living Worldwide City Rankings' survey released yesterday.

Dubai ranked 75th while Abu Dhabi takes 83rd spot in the list, which was dominated by European cities with Vienna topping the list and Baghdad finding its place at the bottom.

Mercer conducts the rankings to help governments and multinational companies compensate employees fairly while placing them on international assignments. The rankings are based on the point-scoring index, which sees Vienna score 108.6 and Baghdad 14.7. Cities are ranked against New York as the base city with an index score of 100.

In the Middle East and African sub-continent, Dubai remained ahead of cities such as Mauritius, Victoria, Johannesburg and Cape Town in terms of quality of living.

The rankings are derived by evaluating the living conditions of the surveyed cities while factoring in the political, economic, social and socio-cultural environment. Besides, other factors such as health and sanitation, schools and education, public services and transportation, recreational facilities, consumer goods, housing and neutral environment are also considered.

Commenting on the survey, Mercer's head of survey practice in the Middle East, Bassam Gazal, said: "The Abu Dhabi and Dubai governments have invested a lot of time and money to improve the quality of living in both cities and it's only natural that they harvest the fruits of their hard work."

Muscat in Oman at 100 was the region's only other city in the top 100. Following the revision of the index a selection of cities globally have been added, including Doha in Qatar (110). Manama, Bahrain, took the 111th position, followed by Kuwait City, Kuwait, at 122, and in Saudi Arabia, Riyadh is ranked 158 and Jeddah 159.

Muscat emerged as the best eco-ranking city in the GCC at 48th position, jointly followed by Dubai and Abu Dhabi occupying the 65th place. Eco-ranking is based on water availability and drinkability, waste removal, quality of sewage systems, air pollution and traffic congestion.

GCC RANKINGS

Dubai 75

Abu Dhabi 83

Doha 110

Manama 111

Kuwait 122

Riyadh 158

Jeddah 159

WORLD RANKINGS

Vienna 1

Zurich 2

Geneva 3

Vancouver 4

Auckland 4

Düsseldorf 6

Sydney 10

Singapore 28

San Francisco 32

Tokyo 40

Washington DC 45

Chicago 45

New York (base city) 49

Dubai 75

Athens 75

Mauritius 82

Cape Town 86

Johannesburg 96

Baghdad 221