The capital of the Emirates of Abu Dhabi and the second largest city in the country, Dubai, are recognized by analysts of Mercer Human Resource Consulting as the most favorable cities in the Middle East in terms of sanitary standards and the level of health care, also entering the hundred most attractive cities for life.
As shown by the results of the Worldwide Quality of Living Survey, conducted annually by the British company Mercer Human Resource Consulting, the two largest emirate cities successfully compete with many famous places in the world. In terms of quality of life and, as a result, attractiveness for expatriates, Dubai occupies the 80th, and Abu Dhabi is 85th in the ranking of 215 cities. The experts compiled a rating based on an analysis of 39 criteria for each city, including the political, economic and environmental situation, personal safety factors, level of education, transportation services and consumer services. New York was traditionally taken as the base city of reference.
According to Slagin Parakatil, head of Mercer Human Resource Consulting, the emirate cities have huge development potential, which allowed them to rise to higher ranks this year as well. As positive factors, he noted the rapid development of urban infrastructure, excellent opportunities for shopping and entertainment.
The first place in the ranking was once again taken by Swiss Zurich, to which neighboring Geneva lost only one hundredth point. Third place was shared by Canadian Vancouver and Austrian Vienna. Next on the list are European and Australian cities, making up the top ten most attractive places to live. The last line in the ranking is the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
None of the cities of the former USSR were in the top five dozen ratings.
In terms of health and safety standards, Dubai and Abu Dhabi went even further, dividing 58th place and becoming the best in the region. The reason for this, according to the head of Mercer Human Resource Consulting, was the availability and quality of medical services, as well as government attention to healthcare development.
Canadian Calgary is recognized as the cleanest city in the world, followed by the American Honolulu. On the third line is the only European city of the first five - the capital of Finland, Helsinki. Next are Canadian Ottawa and American Minneapolis.
The least clean city in the world was the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, which managed to cede Bangladeshi Dhaka and the city of Antananarivo in Madagascar, as well as all the Indian cities participating in the study.
Eastern European cities took fairly low positions, while Russian ones distinguished themselves as the dirtiest in the region, lining up in descending order of cleanliness and health care in the following ways: Kazan, Novosibirsk, St. Petersburg, Moscow.
