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Standard of living in Greece remains the same for 2009, with Athens placing #76 for overall quality of living and #102 for city infrastructure.* Although the capital was the highest ranked city in Greece on Mercer’s annual survey, it (again) had the lowest standard of living in western Europe, inching up only one place from #77 in 2008.
This year, Mercer sampled 420 cities worldwide for its global ranking based on 39 criteria that can be quantitatively measured, including:
— Political stability, crime, law enforcement
— Currency exchange, financial regulations, banking services
— Censorship, privacy, suppression of freedom
— Medical supplies/services, waste disposal, pollution
— Standard and availability of education
— Availability/quality of water, electricity, public transport, traffic
— Availability/pricing of consumer goods
— Housing, maintenance, appliances
— Natural environment (climate, wildfires, natural disasters)
Subjective attributes, such as weather, entertainment (clubs, beaches) and culture, are not a part of this survey. Villages and smaller cities tend to not rank on this survey because it is based on worldwide metropolitan areas, where companies have offices and send employees. Also, most of us need to work for a living and job opportunities tend to dwindle outside city limits.
Mercer performs this comprehensive assessment to determine living conditions for expatriate employees. Critics argue that this does not apply to the everyday person, but it is important to remember that expats use the same public services, institutions and living spaces as local residents. Therefore, it is essentially a quality of living analysis for everyone.
In the end, the definition of “quality of life” comes down to personal preference, circumstances and options. For example, some Athenians may not mind frequent strikes, having their electricity and water cut off several times a week, price gouging or the smell of garbage in summertime; but multinational corporations and others may find it difficult to conduct business and enjoy life under such conditions.
Top 10
Vienna topped Zurich this year to claim the #1 position, and Honolulu and San Francisco were the highest ranked American cities on the survey. If you’ve ever been to any of these cities, it’s easy to understand why.
1. Vienna, Austria
2. Zurich, Switzerland
3. Geneva, Switzerland
4. Vancouver, Canada
4. Auckland, New Zealand
6. Dusseldorf, Germany
7. Munich, Germany
8. Frankfurt, Germany
9. Bern, Switzerland
10. Sydney, Australia
Mercer no longer allows republication of the Top 50 cities or any survey in its entirety, and I respect that. You can click “Top 50 Cities — Quality of Living 2009” to review a table made available to the public. The Economist also published a quality of living survey that ranked Athens, Greece at #63 of 140 cities, which was dead last in Western Europe.
*Note: I received this information from direct personal contact with M. Andersen at Mercer’s Press Office, which makes it exclusive since it wasn’t and isn’t published anywhere else in English.
In the News
“Tελευταία στη Δ. Ευρώπη, λατρεμένη και μισητή” (Loved and loathed) — Kathimerini (GR)
“Τελευταία η Αθήνα…” (Athens last in EU) — Kathimerini (GR)
Related posts
“Athens, Greece: Quality of living 2008”
“Athens, Greece: Cost of living 2008”
“Athens, Greece: Cost vs. quality of living 2007“
Kat Reply:
May 4th, 2009 at 23:02
Every city has their good and bad areas — for example, in San Francisco, Nob Hill (rich) is right next to the Tenderloin (drug infested) — but it isn’t necessarily representative of the entire city. I’ve never been to Hastings, but likening Omonia to Beverly Hills? In any case, I find that people who are protected from the ills of any city by access to money, material things, their parents, a lawyer or whatever niche they’ve carved, often live in a bubble and think it’s the best place no matter what. And if it’s one’s hometown, there’s a sentimental aspect that has nothing to do with quantitative facts.
I personally do not like the term “best” and have explained many times why this is unreasonable and highly subjective, but many come to this website looking for just that — best place to live in Greece, best place to move, best place to work, best place for expats… These are not answers that can be found anywhere or by asking anyone; it’s highly personal.