Hyderabad Is The Best City To Live In India, Ranks 139th Globally

Hyderabad has been ranked as the city with the best standard of living in India for the second year in a row and 139th worldwide according to human resource consultancy firm Mercer’s annual survey on the Quality of Living.

At the top of the pack is Vienna, which has been rated as the city with the best quality of living for the third consecutive year. Mercer says that 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, as reflected in the survey.

Among Indian cities, Pune has been slotted at the 144th place and Bengaluru at 145th in the 230 cities long ranking. Hyderabad itself has slipped down a place from last year which Mercer says is because of increased power disruptions, which have become more frequent in the recent years and on account of the extreme weather situation, particularly in May 2015, when extreme heat caused approximately 2,000 deaths countrywide.

The country’s more traditional business centres, Mumbai and New Delhi are ranked at 152 and 161 respectively.

“Most Indian companies send their employees on short term or long term assignments to developed nations. Low scores and rankings of Indian cities does not reckon a provision of hardship or quality of living allowance, as the differential tends to show marked improvement in the quality of living from an Indian base city,” said Ruchika Pal, Principal and India Practice Leader, Global Mobility at Mercer.

The survey which takes into consideration 450 cities across the globe aims to help multinational companies and other employers to compensate employees fairly when placing them on international assignments by providing data as well as hardship premium recommendations.

Mercer says that the parameters taken into account for the survey include political and social environment, medical care and health considerations, public services, recreation facilities and natural environment amongst others. The survey also takes into account the personal safety ranking for the full list of cities based on internal stability, crime figures levels, the performance of local law enforcement, and the home country’s relationship with other countries.

While the survey suggests that Indian cities are largely safer than its South Asian counterparts, they only come in at the 113th spot with Chennai, followed by Hyderabad and Bengaluru at 121 and 123, respectively.

Vienna continues its reign in the top spot for overall quality of living, followed by Zurich (2), Auckland (3), and Munich (4).Vancouver (5) is North America's highest ranking city, and Singapore is the highest ranking Asian city, holding 26th place.

The survey also identifies the personal safety ranking for the full list of cities; it is based on internal stability, crime figures levels, performance of local law enforcement, and the home country's relationship with other countries. Luxembourg tops the personal safety list and is followed by Bern, Helsinki, and Zurich - all tied in 2nd place. Baghdad (230) and Damascus (229) are the world's least safe cities according to the ranking.