The Mercer firm has published its 2017 ranking of cities with the best quality of life, featuring Rabat and Casablanca for the second year in a row.

The Moroccan capital comes 116th in the ranking, between Sofia and Asuncion. Rabat ranks 8 places ahead of Casablanca, which ranked 125th.

In North Africa, the city of Tunis, ranked 114th, ahead of Rabat, while Algiers took 184th position and Tripoli 218th.

“Dubai (74) continues to rank highest for quality of living across Africa and the Middle East, rising one position in this year’s ranking, followed closely by Abu Dhabi (79), which climbed three spots. Sana’a (229) in Yemen, Bangui (230) in the Central African Republic, and Baghdad (231) in Iraq are the region’s three lowest-ranked cities for quality of living,” the report said.

Vienna took the first place for high quality of life. The authors of the report estimate that 1.8 million people living in the Austrian capital enjoy not only security and good job opportunities, but also the rich historical and architectural heritage of the country. Vienna is closely followed by Zurich, Auckland, Munich, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Copenhagen and Basel.

The Mercer ranking is based on 17 criteria, including business climate, crime, public transport, infrastructure and access to safe drinking water. According to the firm, city infrastructure, which was ranked separately this year, plays an important role in multinational companies decisions on where to establish locations abroad and send expatriate workers.

Easy access to transportation, reliable electricity, and drinkable water are all important considerations when determining hardship allowances based on differences between a given assignee’s home and host locations.

Source :Morocco World News