 | | University of Zurich |
A survey published on Monday shows Zurich as the world's most desirable city in which to live, knocking last year's winner Vancouver into a second place-tie with Vienna.Swiss cities dominated the list of 215 centres ranked according to quality of life, with Geneva tying Sydney for fourth place and Bern finishing 10th, in the annual survey by human resources consultancy William M. Mercer. Retaining the unwelcome distinction of the world's worst city in which to live was Brazzaville, Congo. Thirty-nine key criteria were used to judge cities' desirability, including the political, economic, natural and socio-cultural environments, healthcare, education, housing, transport, shopping and recreation. New York was used as the baseline for comparison. The Big Apple finished 41st, equal with London, Washington, Boston, Chicago and Madrid. "Though the world's living standards have risen slightly since last year, the gap between cities at the top and the bottom of the table is still large," said Slagin Parakatil, senior researcher at Mercer. "The basic comforts of life, hygiene and personal safety are the main differentiators, and these are often lacking in developing countries. The gap is magnified by economic and political instability," he said. Rounding out the top 10 were Frankfurt, Helsinki, Auckland and Copenhagen, while scraping bottom were Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, at 209, and Baghdad at 211. In the environmental stakes, Calgary, Canada, finished top while pollution-choked Mexico City ranked last. (Agencies) | 3月11日世界知名人力資源公司William Mercer公布了"世界城市適宜居住情況"的調查結果，瑞士的蘇黎世位居榜首，去年排名首位的的溫哥華和維也納并列第二。 這項年度調查根據各個城市的生活質量對215個城市進行了排名，其中瑞士的城市在"最適宜居住的城市"排名榜上占據了大多數席位。悉尼和日內瓦并列第四，波恩排在第十位。在調查報告中，剛果共和國首都布拉柴維爾繼續成為"世界上最不適合居住的城市"。 這項調查根據39項評選標準對215個世界城市進行了評估，其中包括政治、經濟、自然和人文環境、醫療、教育、住房、交通、購物和娛樂等因素。 通常紐約是劃分"適合居住"和"不適合居住"的分水嶺，在這次的排行榜中紐約和倫敦、華盛頓、波士頓、芝加哥、馬德里并列排在第41位。 Mercer公司的高級研究員斯萊金·帕拉卡特迪爾說："盡管世界各個城市的生活水平較去年稍有提高，但是名列前茅的城市和排名最后的那些城市之間的差距還是很大。"  | | 墨西哥城擁擠的街道 |
帕拉卡特迪爾說："主要差距表現在生活的舒適度、衛生狀況和個人安全方面，這些往往是發展中國家所欠缺的，而（發展中國家）經濟的不發達和政治的不穩定則將差距進一步拉大"。 排在前十名的城市還有法蘭克福、赫爾辛基、奧克蘭和哥本哈根，而布基納法索首都瓦加杜古排到了209名，巴格達位居211。 如果僅就環境狀況進行排名，加拿大的卡爾加里將名列第一，而城市污染嚴重的墨西哥城則排在了末尾。 (中國日報網站譯) |
Updated: 2002-03-13 01:00
