Swiss cities ranked the best; Baghdad the worst, Vancouver third.

Vancouver, on Canada’s Pacific Coast, was pushed down into third.

Canadian cities tops for health
A separate poll on top cities for health and sanitation had Canada’s Calgary first with Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver also in the top 10, along with Swiss capital Bern, Zurich and Geneva.

“The top cities for health and sanitation have a combination of excellent hospital services and medical supplies and low levels of air pollution and infectious disease,” said Slagin Parakatil, senior researcher at Mercer.

Lowest ranked for health and sanitation was the Azerbaijani capital Baku because of the short supply of medical services and poor waste removal, the report said.

Both surveys were mostly carried out in November 2003 and use New York as a starting point with a base score of 100. In the overall quality of life poll, New York finished 38th, up from 44th last year, 6.5 points behind Zurich and Geneva.

Baghdad scored 14.5, 14 points adrift of 214th-placed Bangui in the Central African Republic.

“The threat of terrorism in the Middle East and the political and economic turmoil in African countries has increased the disparity between cities at the top and the bottom end of the rankings,” said Parakatil.