RANK AT TOP OF QUALITY-OF-LIFE

sURVEYLuxembourg ranks as the world’s top city for personal safety and security, according to a quality-of-life survey by Mercer human resource Consulting. the city scores 122.5 followed by helsinki, Bern, geneva, and Zurich, which tie for second with scores of 120. Scores forpersonalsafetyand security are derived by comparison with other countries, and measuring internal stability and crime, including terrorism. Law enforcement, censorship, and limitations on personal freedom are also taken into account. Cities are ranked against new york as the base city, which has a rating of 100.

The analysis is part of a worldwide quality-of-life survey covering 215 cities to help govern- ments and major companies place and pay employees on international assignments. the Japanese cities of omuta, Kas- tuyama, tsukuba, and yokkaichi score highest in Asia, while Calgary, Montreal, ottawa, toronto, and vancouver rank top in north America, in overall 18th place. In the united States, honolulu, houston, San francisco, and Winston-Salem rank highest, in 45th place with scores of 104. Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Portland, and new york all fol- low in 58th place. the lowest-scoring city in north America is Atlanta, ranked 90th with a score of 90.5, due to street crime and burglary.

The world’s least secure city is Baghdad (Iraq), with a score of 5, due to ongoing civil unrest and threats of attack in the city. other low-ranking cities include Abidjan in the Ivory Coast, Bangui in the Central African republic, and Port harcourt in nigeria.

Athens, rome, and London appear at the lower end of the rankings for europe, at positions83,74, and69,respectively(scores 93.5, 95.5, and 99), due to high levels of petty crime. Madrid also scores relatively low, sharing 69th place with London, due to terrorism. there is no overall summary report avail- able, but individual reports are produced for each city surveyed by Mercer hr. the cost of comparative quality-of-life indexes between a base city and a host city is $300 (multiple city comparisons are available).