3 Out Of 10 'Best Cities in the World' Are Swiss

"French and British cities fare middling in the 2009 Mercer Quality of Living Survey. Paris drops from 32nd to 33rd place, while London is still only placed 38th. Birmingham and Glasgow are jointly at 56. In the US, the highest-ranking entry is Honolulu at position 29. Singapore (26) is the top-scoring Asian city followed by Tokyo at 35. Baghdad, ranking 215, remains at the bottom of the table.

The rankings are based on a point-scoring index, which sees Vienna score 108.6, and Baghdad 14.4. Cities are ranked against New York as the base city with an index score of 100. Mercer's Quality of Living ranking covers 215 cities and is conducted to help governments and major companies place employees on international assignments.

This year's ranking also identifies the cities with the best infrastructure based on electricity supply, water availability, telephone and mail services, public transport provision, traffic congestion and the range of international flights from local airports."