Durban voted city with best quality of life in South Africa

Mercer’s annual Quality of Living Rankings has placed ICLEI member Durban as South Africa’s highest quality of living city. The Annual rankings cover some 230 other cities and once again this year Vienna came out tops.

In recent years Durban has hosted major international conferences, from COP17 in 2011 to hosting a range of games during the 2012 Football World Cup, it has proven that is can compete on the international level. Durban has also joined the ranks of the News7Wonders and even made it to the 7th spot on the New York Times’ list of the top 52 places to visits across the Globe.

Durban was placed 85th in front of Cape Town’s 91st and Johannesburg’s 94th as the city with the highest quality of living.

In a press release, Mercer states that “Durban’s higher ranking is mainly due to its high-quality housing, plentiful recreational offerings and good consumer goods availability.”

Mercer does the study to help gage the quality of city life is for employees it sends overseas on long-term assignments.

Some considerations that are taken into account for the list are:

– Political and social environment
– Economic environment
– Socio-cultural environment
– Medical and health considerations
– School and education
– Public services and transportation
– Recreation
– Consumer goods
– Housing
– Natural environment

The top 5 cities are:
1. Vienna, Austria
2. Zurich, Switzerland
3. Auckland, New Zealand
4. Munich, Germany
5. Vancouver, Canada

9 March 2015

Durban voted city with best quality of life in South Africa

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