June 27, 2006 | posted by Michael Baxter in Uncategorized |

Pity the poor old Londoner. Not only do they have to contend with living in the fifth most expensive city in the world, but, for quality of living, the UK’s capital is right down the league table, languishing at a miserable 39th place.

Mind you, according to Mercer Human Resources Consulting, the Moscovites have got it worse. The city of the Kremlin is now the most expensive on Earth, boasting a higher cost of living than Tokyo, which topped the poll last year. And for quality of living, the city does not even figure in the top 50 at all.

In fact the most pleasant city to live in is apparently Zurich, with Geneva in second, then Vancouver, followed by Vienna and then Auckland.

As for the most expensive, behind Moscow, sits Seoul, followed by Tokyo, then Hong Kong, and then London.

New York has risen up the ranking thanks to the stronger dollar last year rising from 13th most expensive city to 10th. No doubt then, it will improve this year, as the dollar softens. It was in 46th place for quality of life.
Paris was 15th and 33rd place for cost of living and quality of living respectively.

The question is this. How exactly does Mercer define quality of living? With the greatest respect to Zurich, it’s not exactly a hive of activity on a Sunday afternoon. Samuel Pepys once said: “Once you are tired of London you are tired of life.” And no doubt these days similar sentiments could be expressed for the world’s other great cities. If the index put a higher weighting on excitement and buzz, then maybe the numbers would look quite different.