According to the annual Mercer Worldwide Quality of Living Survey, Sydneysiders enjoy Australia’s best quality of life, coming in tenth worldwide. A number of Australian cities made it into the Top 50 – Melbourne is 18, Perth is 21, Adelaide is 30, Brisbane 34.

The survey looks at 215 cities and is conducted to help governments and major companies work out how much hardship allowance to pay employees who are sent on international assignments.

The survey bases their decision on ten main categories – political and social environment, economy, socio-cultural environment, medical & health considerations, schools and education, natural environment, public services and transport, recreation, consumer goods and housing.

Mercer principal Rob Knox told Herald Sun that Melbourne ranked lower because of transport and air pollution, and that Sydney’s strengths lie in more international flights to more destinations, more foreign schools and public transport. Knox also said that Australia struggles across the board because of access to international flights and being so spread out.

For the purposes of the survey, New York is used as the benchmark – this year it rated 49th, lower than all of the Australian cities.

The Top 10 were:
1. Vienna, Austria
2. Zurich, Switzerland
3. Geneva, Switzerland
4. Vancouver, Canada and Auckland, New Zealand
6. Dusseldorf, Germany
7. Munich, Germany
8. Frankfurt, Germany
9. Bern, Switzerland
10. Sydney, Australia

Click here for the full list.