World’s best city for expats revealed

A women chat at the tram stop in front of the lit-up Wiener Staatsoper ,Vienna’s State Opera, during the twilight in the city center of Vienna, on August 12,2014.The Vienna State Opera is an opera house and opera company with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera (Wiener Hofoper) but in 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Republic of Austria, it was renamed to the Vienna State Opera. The members of the Vienna Philharmonic are recruited from its orchestra.AFP PHOTO/JOE KLAMAR (Photo credit should read JOE KLAMAR/AFP/Getty Images)

Ever doubted that cake makes the world a better place?

Consider the fact that Vienna — the city that perfected the doughnut, the chocolate cake, the strudel and a zillion other calorific treats — has been named the world's best city for expats.

No coincidence surely.

The Austrian capital ranked in the top spot for overall quality of living in consulting firm Mercer's 18th annual study of foreign workers' overseas lifestyles.

For the seventh year running it beat out major international capitals including New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong and Dubai — none of which made it anywhere near the top 20.

Immediately behind Vienna are a slew of other mainly Western European cities, with Zurich, Switzerland in second place and Munich, Germany in fourth.

European dominance
"Despite recent security issues, social unrest and concern about the region's economic outlook, European cities continue to offer some of the world's highest quality of living," Mercer says.

The top five is rounded out by New Zealand's biggest city, Auckland, and Vancouver on Canada's west coast.

Singapore is Asia's highest ranking city, taking 26th place, Dubai claims top ranking for the Middle East at 75, while Africa's only two destinations to make the top 100 are Cape Town at 92 and Johannesburg at 95.

The study of 440 cities evaluated standards of safety, health, schools, recreation, environment, public services and cakes (well, OK, consumer goods).

New York-based Mercer says financial clouds looming over Europe have failed to dent the continent's dominance of its list, while ongoing instability has consigned many Middle Eastern and Africa cities to the bottom rungs.

"Despite economic uncertainties, Western European cities continue to enjoy some of the highest quality of living worldwide; they fill seven places in the top-10 list," Mercer adds.

MORE: Ringstrasse: Vienna's lord of the ring roads

Least desirable destinations
In sixth place is German city Dusseldorf, followed by Frankfurt in seventh, Geneva at eighth, Copenhagen in ninth and Sydney, Australia making 10th.

At 28, San Francisco is the highest ranking U.S. city, followed by Boston at 34, Honolulu at 35, Chicago at 43 and New York at 45.

Paris, which witnessed two major terror attacks in 2015, is 37 on the list, two stops above London at 39.

Bringing up the rear of the 230 ranked cities are Baghdad (at 230), Central African Republic's Bangui (229), Sana'a, Yemen (228), Port-au-Prince, Haiti (227) and Khartoum, Sudan (226).

Mercer also ranked cities for delivering personal safety with Luxembourg taking top honors, jointly followed by Swiss capital Bern, Helsinki and Zurich.