The ranking is determined by 39 parameters combined into 10 subgroups: political stability, freedom of economic activity, respect for personal freedoms, level of medical care, level of education, level of development of the transport system, quality of the service sector system, quality of products available in the city, state of housing and communal services, and state of the environment in the city.
Swiss Zurich has held the leading position for several years. The city's rating in 2006 was 108.2 points, which is 0.2 points higher than the same indicator last year. Second place in the MMC ranking belongs to Geneva - 108.1 points this year versus 107.9 last year. In general, the top ten cities where it is good to live looks as follows: already mentioned Zurich, Geneva, Canadian Vancouver (107.7), capital of Austria Vienna (107.5), Auckland located in New Zealand (107.3), three German cities – Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich (107.2, 107.0 and 106.8 respectively). The best ten are rounded out by the Swiss capital Bern and Australia's largest city Sydney: 106.5 points each.
Experts also note the progress of Dublin (Ireland), which took 24th place on the list. At the same time, the capital of Great Britain London was 39th, and Paris - 33rd.
According to the report's authors, recently there has been a gradual increase in the quality of life in many Eastern European cities, associated with an influx of foreign investment into Eastern European countries. Progressing above all are Vilnius, Tallinn and Ljubljana.
As for the Ukrainian capital, Kiev took 166th position in the ranking. Among other large CIS cities, St. Petersburg was in 163rd place, Moscow - 173rd, Almaty - 183rd, Minsk - 184th, in 189th place Novosibirsk, in 191st – Kazan, Baku - 193rd and Tashkent - 198th.
At the very last - 215th place in the quality of life ranking conducted by Mercer Management Consulting, stands Baghdad. The quality of life in the Iraqi capital is estimated at 14.5 points.