Business Week has published it’s list of The World’s Best Places to Live 2008 which is based on Mercer Consulting’s 2008 Quality of Living survey. The survey is a strange set of 39 subjective measures compared to New York City as the baseline.
Mercer has designed an objective way of measuring quality of living for expatriates based on factors that people consider representative of quality of living. Our annual survey is based on detailed assessments and evaluations of 10 key categories and 39 criteria or factors, each having coherent weightings reflecting their relative importance.
The report is aimed at calculating “ fair, consistent expatriate allowances…for transfers to more than 350 cities worldwide”. Generally there was not a huge change year-on-year.
| Rank 2008 | Rank 2007 | City | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Zurich | Switzerland |
| 2 | 3 | Vienna | Austria |
| 2 | 2 | Geneva | Switzerland |
| 4 | 3 | Vancouver | Canada |
| 5 | 5 | Auckland | New Zealand |
| 6 | 5 | Dusseldorf | Germany |
| 7 | 8 | Munich | Germany |
| 7 | 7 | Franfurt | Germany |
| 9 | 9 | Bern | Switzerland |
| 10 | 9 | Sydney | Australia |
| 11 | 11 | Copenhagen | Denmark |
| 12 | 12 | Wellington | New Zealand |
| 13 | 13 | Amsterdam | Netherlands |
| 14 | 14 | Brussels | Belgium |
| 15 | 15 | Toronto | Canada |
| 16 | 16 | Berlin | Germany |
| 17 | 17 | Melbourne | Australia |
| 17 | 18 | Luxembourg | Luxembourg |
| 19 | 18 | Ottawa | Canada |
| 20 | 20 | Stockholm | Sweden |
Typically these lists are much more North American focused. They all seem to have a well-thought out logic
Entrepreneur.com Best Cities for Entrepreneurs
- Phoenix, Arizona
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Austin, Texas
- Washington, D.C.
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Nashville, Tennessee
- Norfolk, Virginia
- San Antonio, Texas
Forbes.com Top 10 Up-and-Coming Tech Cities
- Columbus, Ohio
- Santa Fe, New Mexico
- Palm Beach County, Florida
- Houston, Texas
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Boise City, Idaho
- Iowa City, Iowa
- Lake Charles, Louisiana
- Yuma, Arizona
Paul Graham argues that Silicon Valley or Boston are the best places for startups. Richard Florida provides a unique look at a variety of different factors, from creative class to innovation and scientist to singles. And he provides a list of the best cities based on the characteristics on the individual.
The New Geography of Work
Innovation in a Spiky World
What do you think? Where is the greatest city for startups in Canada? What can you do to make your city a better place?
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According to the first and with my friends I have to say that the best city in Canada is Toronto (it is because I never had the opportunity to visit Toronto). And what my city needs to improve itself and be in the list in the future is first of all reduce the violence (I´m talking about Rio de Janeiro), and public transportation considering that in NYC they have a train system that cover all the city with more than 20 different lines we have in Rio just 2 train lines for more than 5 million people.
This is an interesting list and I would love to be able to check out many of the cities that you mentioned. But can anybody really recommend Memphis, TN as a good place to live? I have heard that many people do their best to travel around the city when going from north to south, much less live there.
Unless things have changed drastically; the crime is awful unless you head way out east of the city or south into Mississippi where their is little tolerance for criminals and drains on public assistance. To make my point, Sperling’s Best Places lists the crime rate of Memphis as comparable to Chicago and New Orleans. Nothing against those places, but they are not on the above list of good places to live.
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