Panama breaks into top 100 on quality of life index, Europe leads

If you want to lead the good life then head “east” to Europe. But if you are wedded to life in Latin American life then Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Chile and Panama City are the places to be.

Those are the findings of a world quality life ranking released Tuesday.

Heading the list are  Vienna, Zurich and Auckland and, in spite of financial woes European locations predominate.

Of the top ten of the 211 cities covered by the "Study on Quality of Life 2011" prepared by the consulting firm Mercer, seven are from the old continent.

Taken into consideration are  infrastructure, good healthcare and a wide variety of leisure.
In Central and South America, the best positions on the list are Pointe a Pitre, in a respectable world ranking position 63, followed by San Juan de Puerto Rico (72), Montevideo (77), Buenos Aires (81), Santiago de Chile ( 90) and Panama City (93).

Further down come Monterrey (104), San Jose (105), Assumption (112), Lima (118), Mexico City (121), Quito (124), Santo Domingo (129), Bogota (130), Guatemala ( 142), La Paz (147), Caracas (164), Managua (166), San Salvador (168) and, already in the queue positions, Havana (189).
In contrast, European cities with more quality of life are high on the list. Vienna (1), Zurich (2), Munich (4), Düsseldorf (5), Frankfurt (7), Geneva (8), Bern and Copenhagen (which share ninth place) to Amsterdam (12), Hamburg (16), Berlin (17), Luxembourg (19) and Stockholm (20 ). Other cities highlighted regard are Brussels (22), Paris (30), Oslo (33), Helsinki (35) and London (38).
The first Spanish cities on the list  are Barcelona, ??ranked 40, and Madrid, 43. By contrast, cities with poorer quality of life are Khartoum, Port au Prince, N'Djamena, Bangui and Baghdad, which occupies the last position in the general classification and ranking of personal safety.
The report takes New York (ranked number 47) as a benchmark to compare the different levels of quality of life, for evaluating aspects such as public services, leisure and housing, the socio-cultural, economic,political and social, educational level and the environment.
CANADA TOPS N. AMERICA

Canadian cities are the North American cities that occupy the highest positions, especially Vancouver (shared fifth place with Germany's Düsseldorf), Ottawa (14), Toronto (15) and Montreal (22). Meanwhile, Honolulu (29) and San Francisco (30) are the U.S. cities with better quality of life.
The study also measures the level of personal security of each city, which takes into account such factors as the level of crime, domestic stability, effectiveness of law and international relations of the country concerned.

In this sense, Luxembourg leads the ranking of safest cities to live, followed by the Swiss cities of Bern and Zurich, which share the second position, while Barcelona and Madrid are relegated to positions 63 and 68 respectively. At the other extreme, the three most dangerous cities are Abidjan (219), N'Djamena (220) and Baghdad (221).