Auckland World’s 4th Best!

 

They obviously didn’t try out our train service.

Auckland is the fourth best city in the world for quality of living -Vienna retains the top spot , according to the Mercer 2010 Quality of Living Survey.

Zurich and Geneva follow in second and third position, respectively, while Vancouver and Auckland remain joint fourth in the rankings.

Wellington is the 12th best city but the 5th eco city in the world beating Auckland which ranks 13th.
Mercer conducts the ranking to help governments and multi-national companies compensate employees fairly when placing them on international assignments.
The rankings are based on a 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.

Auckland (4) retains its position as the highest-ranking city for quality of living in the Asia-Paciiic region. Sydney follows at 10, Wellington at 12, Melbourne at 18 and Perth at 21. At 26, Canberra is new to the index.

European cities continue to dominate amongst the top 25 cities in the index. In the UK, London ranks at 39, while Birmingham is at 55 and Glasgow at 57. In the US, the highest ranking entry is Honolulu at position 31, followed by San Francisco at position 32.

Singapore remains the highest-ranking Asian city at 28, followed by Japanese cities Tokyo (40), Kobe and Yokohama (both at 41), Osaka (51) and Nagoya (57).

Baghdad, ranking 221, remains at the bottom of the list.

The region’s lowest-ranking cities are Dhaka in Bangladesh (206) and two cities new to the list – Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan (209) and Dushanbe in Tajikistan (210).
With a score of 138.9, Wellington (5) is the highest-ranking eco-city in the region followed by Adelaide (7), Kobe (9), Perth (12) and Auckland (13). Dhaka in Bangladesh (220) ranks lowest with a score of 30.9.

This year’s ranking also identifies the cities with the best eco-ranking based on water availability and drinkability, waste removal, quality of sewage systems, air pollution and traffic congestion.

Calgary is at the top of this index (score 145.7), followed by Honolulu in second place (score 145.1) and Ottawa and Helsinki in joint third (score 139.9). Wellington (5), Minneapolis (6), Adelaide (7) and Copenhagen fill the next four slots, while Kobe, Oslo and Stockholm share ninth place.

Port-au-Prince in Haiti ranks at the bottom of this table with a score of only 27.8.

2010 rankings
1 VIENNA AUSTRIA 108.6
2 ZURICH SWITZERLAND 108
3 GENEVA SWITZERLAND 107.9
4 VANCOUVER CANADA 107.4
4 AUCKLAND NEW ZEALAND 107.4
6 DUSSELDORF GERMANY 107.2
7 FRANKFURT GERMANY 107
7 MUNICH GERMANY 107
9 BERN SWITZERLAND 106.5
10 SYDNEY AUSTRALIA 106.3
11 COPENHAGEN DENMARK 106.2
12 WELLINGTON NEW ZEALAND 105.9
13 AMSTERDAM NETHERLANDS 105.7
14 OTTAWA CANADA 105.5
15 BRUSSELS BELGIUM 105.4
16 TORONTO CANADA 105.3
17 BERLIN GERMANY 105
18 MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA 104.8
19 LUXEMBOURG LUXEMBOURG 104.6
20 STOCKHOLM SWEDEN 104.5
21 PERTH AUSTRALIA 104.2
21 MONTREAL CANADA 104.2
23 HAMBURG GERMANY 104.1
24 NURNBURG GERMANY 103.9
24 OSLO NORWAY 103.9
26 CANBERRA AUSTRALIA 103.6
26 DUBLIN IRELAND 103.6
28 CALGARY CANADA 103.5
28 SINGAPORE SINGAPORE 103.5
30 STUTTGART GERMANY 103.3
31 HONOLULU UNITED STATES 103.1
32 ADELAIDE AUSTRALIA 103
32 SAN FRANCISCO UNITED STATES 103
34 PARIS FRANCE 102.9
35 HELSINKI FINLAND 102.6
36 BRISBANE AUSTRALIA 102.4
37 BOSTON UNITED STATES 102.2
38 LYON FRANCE 101.9
39 LONDON UNITED KINGDOM 101.6
40 TOKYO JAPAN 101.4
41 MILAN ITALY 100.8
41 KOBE JAPAN 100.8
41 YOKOHAMA JAPAN 100.8
44 BARCELONA SPAIN 100.6
45 LISBON PORTUGAL 100.3
45 CHICAGO UNITED STATES 100.3
45 WASHINGTON UNITED STATES 100.3
48 MADRID SPAIN 100.2
49 NEW YORK CITY UNITED STATES 100
50 SEATTLE UNITED STATES 99.8

Top 50 cities: Eco-City ranking

Eco-City Ranking 2010 includes the following criteria: Water availability, water potability, waste removal, sewage, air pollution and traffic congestion.
1 CALGARY CANADA 145.7
2 HONOLULU UNITED STATES 145.1
3 OTTAWA CANADA 139.9
3 HELSINKI FINLAND 139.9
5 WELLINGTON NEW ZEALAND 138.9
6 MINNEAPOLIS UNITED STATES 137.8
7 ADELAIDE AUSTRALIA 137.5
8 COPENHAGEN DENMARK 137.4
9 KOBE JAPAN 135.6
9 OSLO NORWAY 135.6
9 STOCKHOLM SWEDEN 135.6
12 PERTH AUSTRALIA 135.3
13 MONTREAL CANADA 133.6
13 VANCOUVER CANADA 133.6
13 NURNBERG GERMANY 133.6
13 AUCKLAND NEW ZEALAND 133.6
13 BERN SWITZERLAND 133.6
13 PITTSBURGH UNITED STATES 133.6
19 ZURICH SWITZERLAND 133.5
19 ABERDEEN UNITED KINGDOM 133.5
21 CANBERRA AUSTRALIA 133.3
22 SINGAPORE SINGAPORE 132.4
23 BRISBANE AUSTRALIA 131.6
23 WASHINGTON UNITED STATES 131.6
25 MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA 131.5
25 GENEVA SWITZERLAND 131.5
25 BOSTON UNITED STATES 131.5
28 DUSSELDORF GERMANY 130.7
28 MUNICH GERMANY 130.7
30 CAPE TOWN SOUTH AFRICA 129.4
30 BELFAST UNITED KINGDOM 129.4
32 LYON FRANCE 129.3
33 DUBLIN IRELAND 128.9
34 HAMBURG GERMANY 128.8
34 STUTTGART GERMANY 128.8
34 PHILADELPHIA UNITED STATES 128.8
37 YOKOHAMA JAPAN 128.7
38 VICTORIA SEYCHELLES 128.5
39 TORONTO CANADA 127.1
39 AMSTERDAM NETHERLANDS 127.1
41 BRUSSELS BELGIUM 126.8
41 LEIPZIG GERMANY 126.8
43 ST. LOUIS UNITED STATES 126.6
44 VIENNA AUSTRIA 126.2
44 LUXEMBOURG LUXEMBOURG 126.2
46 SYDNEY AUSTRALIA 125
47 GLASGOW UNITED KINGDOM 124.7
48 MUSCAT OMAN 124.2
49 POINTE-A-PITRE GUADELOUPE 123.8
50 NAGOYA JAPAN 123.1
50 OSAKA JAPAN 123.1
50 FRANKFURT GERMANY 123.1

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26 Comments

 
  1. Christopher says:

    World best for **whom**?

    Suits in downtown offices or the solo mum struggling in Otara?

  2. Cam says:

    @Christopher, are you suggesting there are cities where there are no poor people struggling that should be rated ahead of Auckland for this reason? If so where might these be?

  3. Christopher says:

    The question applies to all cities. Best for whom? Suits in downtown offices or solo mums in whatever poor suburb of that city.

  4. ingolfson says:

    Well, if you take New York as a benchmark (100 points), it may well be true that in Auckland (107 points) a struggling solo mum may have it easier.

    Polls and surveys always have bias, even if you do your best to remove it. I kinda agree with the idea that Auckland is an awesome place, so I won’t flog this survey ;-)

  5. Chris says:

    I think the bias is pretty obvious in this poll which begs the question: Best for whom?

    Yes Auckland is an O for oarsome place but it could be even awsomer if social inequality was minimised to the largest degree possible.

  6. Chris says:

    Here’s what Mercer has to say about the methodology of the report:

    “Our reports are based on annual responses to a questionnaire developed by international Mercer professionals, working closely with major multinational companies and other experts in the field.” and “Carefully selected factors representing the criteria considered most relevant to international executives.”

    Other criteria are based on the following: “The total index is based on the following categories:
    Consumer goods
    Economic environment
    Housing
    Medical and health considerations
    Natural environment
    Political and social environment
    Public services and transport
    Recreation
    Schools and education
    Socio-cultural environment”

    And the objective of the report “allows you to translate the quality-of-living index into percentage benefits and define competitive hardship allowances where applicable.”

    I doubt that they asked the office cleaner the same questions.

    So again, Best for whom?

  7. Brent C says:

    Wellington only rates 12th because it has a small population comapred to the rest of the cities compared which have over a million. Due to the size of Wellington, it doesn’t have access to infrastructure that a million city has. I wouldn’t bother reading into this too much. In national surveys, Wellington is a lot higher than Auckland in terms of livability.

    What ever happend to Christchurch?

  8. ingolfson says:

    “Yes Auckland is an O for oarsome place but it could be even awsomer if social inequality was minimised to the largest degree possible.”

    NZ voted for the wrong government to do that. We have a government party that wants to scrap the minimum wage, and another that has just given the rich a big tax cut, even though the countries with the least social inequalities are those like the Scandinavian countries which have whopping-high tax rates.

  9. Joshua says:

    Chris, I think you would be quite surprised if you take what your saying into a survey, NZ has one of the worst wealfare systems in the world - because its just to good for the people on it. I work out in Mangere, and had someone come into our work asking for a job interview, we said we don’t have any positions availible, he went on to tell us he didn’t need the job just the interview so he could show he was putting in the effort, he needed it by the next day or he would lose his job, so we offered him a job so he wouldn’t need to stay on the dole. He told us he just wanted the f**kin interview so he doesn’t need to find a f**kin job.

    Thats the atitude these lower economic people on the Wealfare face, we got the systems for them to take advantage of, if anything this survey taken today should be a disadvantage to us, I’ve never been to a city that doesn’t have a worse lower economical group area then Auckland. Sorry but if anything it would make Auckland higher, Auckland has much more going for it than Wellington, we just need to sort out our transport to become the best!

  10. Chris says:

    Thanks for your observations Joshua, but I would point out that a) the person that you dealt with I’m sure isn’t representative of all people on the dole and b)the value systems that people on the dole have, and people on the breadline have - are you suggesting that these are worth LESS than the value systems of people who work in downtown office towers?

    Could it be that the heavy bias of the survey is deluding us? Wouldn’t it be better to have a survey that takes into account all social groups? Again, Best for Whom?

  11. Hesky says:

    epic bullshit, I want know what organisation made this ranking

  12. ingolfson says:

    “because its just to good for the people on it.”

    Joshua, your complaint is being repeated all over the world by the employed who complain about the people on the dole. It’s always “our system allows this” and “our system allows that”.

    The fact that some people abuse it doesn’t mean that our system is shit, and certainly not that it is the worst in the world. Yes, we should fix some parts of it, but then, the worst damage in this world is being done by rich people absuing THEIR systems (tax dodges, insider trading, backroom influence peddling) - the damage done by them is much greater (literally in the millions and billions), much greater damage than that done by a certain percentage of people on the dole who just don’t want to work.

    Guess which problem our current government is committed to fixing? Their response to tax doging was to drop the tax rates to the trust rate, so people “stop tax dodging”. At the same time they get tough on dole abuse. Guess who costs the state more money. Priorities right? Nope.

  13. Kelvin says:

    Is this the wrong time to be singing ‘Coz we are fourth, we are Auckland, shining a light for New Zulland.’
    OK, technically I’m a few days away from my second bloody winter this year but at least it won’t snow right?
    Can’t wait to discover the AKL at last in person…

  14. Graham says:

    All of the cities in the `first eleven’ except Auckland have either substantial urban rail systems or substantial light rail/tram networks or both. About time Auckland joined them!

  15. Brent C says:

    Dompost: What sort of survey ranks Auckland above Wellington?
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/local/3743245/Auckland-more-livable-than-Wellington

  16. Matt L says:

    I personally think Auckland is a great place and having just got back from a trip overseas it makes me appreciate it even more.

  17. Jon C says:

    @Matt L How was your holiday?

  18. Matt L says:

    It was great, did heaps of driving and heaps of shopping. In total we did just over 3600km in 15 days but that doesn’t take into account the days we didn’t drive much (or at all)

    I have put together a map showing a basic outline of what we did. It doesn’t include the places we drove around within the towns but gives an idea of where we went

    http://maps.google.co.nz/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=108812902397627427887.000487519479412be3880&ll=36.93233,-117.103271&spn=7.0495,16.907959&t=h&z=7

  19. Joshua says:

    All I’m saying is, why should we who work for a living, pay for the people who just want to sit around and get paid for doing nothing, some of us who do go out and work get paid the same amount in our pocket they do, it’s stupid, in countries like japan the people are monitored daily to see if they are trying to get work, after a month they get kicked off. Just Saying.

    However I agree with Matt-L, when you travel around the world and even New Zealand, you know how great Auckland is as a city, I definately believe it deserves it’s place, however it could be so much better, let’s shoot for number one and improve our transport system.

  20. KLK says:

    Regardless of the particular “livability” survey and its bias, Auckland is consistently figuring in the top 10. Thats impressive and can’t be a fluke.

    But what it really highlights to me is the city’s massive potential - if you can be Top 10 with a third world PT-system, chronic traffic congestion, a CBD waterfront which largely ignores its citizens and all the other issues that should have been sorted out long ago, well, even as a non-Aucklander its exciting to think of what the future might hold for the place.

    I certainly plan to live there when I eventually return to NZ.

  21. Jeremy Harris says:

    If we get water and transport infrastructure sorted Auckland would dominate this list…

    Auckland has it all, a rainforest 30 mins from city, two awesome harbours, tree filled suburbs, museums, art galleries, parks, sports, it goes on and on… We just filled up the rest of the space with cars…

  22. Matt L says:

    The last three comments are exactly right, we have an awesome city despite all the issues raised and all of the bickering and infighting that occurs over almost every small issue. If we can fix some of these then there will be nothing stopping us getting to the top

  23. James B says:

    With all the work going on in Wynyard Quarter, Britomart, Queen’s Wharf, the Art Gallery, Aotea Square, Eden Park, shared spaces, Q Theatre, rail electrification, bus lanes and anything else I missed then the next few years are going to be extremely exciting for the city.

  24. anthony says:

    I think both cities are great, Both have something the other doesn’t have.

    Auckland - Weather
    Wellington - PT

    However though Auckland will be able to fix thier transport problems Wellington won’t be able to fix the weather.

  25. Jeremy Harris says:

    AGW might fix the rain, but not the wind ;)

 

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