The Mercer firm has just published the 20th edition of its Quality of Living ranking for cities. Like last year, two Moroccan cities, namely Casablanca and Rabat were featured in the ranking. Compared to 2017, the 20th edition of the Mercer's Quality of Living ranking has been positive for Morocco and most precisely Casablanca. The latter was ranked 124th climbing the ranking and bettering its last year position (125th). Rabat was also included in the list and ranked 117th keeping the same place as last year. In the Maghreb region, Tunis also kept its position ranked 114th, as well as Algiers, 184th. Thus, the two Moroccan cities are, respectively, the second and third destinations in the whole region where one can enjoy living. In Africa, the Tunisian capital occupies the sixth place, followed by Rabat and Casablanca. Criteria used by the ranking For this ranking, the Mercer firm based its results on 39 criteria, including crime rate, waste management, accessibility to public transportation and climate, among others. 231 cities were studied by the firm, and ranked based on several criteria. The quality of living survey is conducted to help governments, major companies, and decision-makers place employees on international assignments. The ranking also identifies the cities with the highest personal safety ranking based upon several factors such as internal stability, crime, effectiveness of law enforcement and relationships with other countries. As in 2017, the cities that topped the ranking are European. Thus, Vienna (Austria) leads the ranking for the ninth consecutive year. It was followed by Zurich (Switzerland) and Auckland (New Zealand). In the Arab world, Dubai (United Arab Emirates) tops the list, ranked 74th in the world, followed by Abu Dhabi (77th), Muscat (Oman) 105th place and Doha (Qatar) 110th. Baghdad (Iraq) 231st, Bangui (Central African Republic) 230th and Sana (Yemen) 229th are at the bottom of the ranking. Conflicted zones such as Damascus (Syria) and Tripoli (Libya) were also ranked respectively 225tha and 218th by Mercer. For the record, Mercer is one of the largest human resources consulting firms in the world. Based in New York City, it operates internationally in more than 130 countries.
