For anyone such as HNW individuals thinking of uprooting their life and moving to another nation and city, data from Mercer gives high marks to the Austrian capital and a number of German cities. The data is less flattering for the US, London, and cities such as Singapore and Hong Kong.

For wealth managers and their clients working out where to live if they want to move to a new country, it turns out that Vienna, Austria tops the charts for quality of life in 2023, according to Mercer, the consultants. 

The city is followed in the rankings by Zurich, Switzerland and Auckland, New Zealand in second and third place, respectively. Switzerland has two cities in the top-10: Geneva is at fifth.

This year the top 10 cities providing a high quality of living include seven locations in Western Europe, two from the Pacific and only one from North America. London, one of the world’s largest financial centres, only makes it to 45th spot. Tokyo is at 50th and Hong Kong is at the 77th spot.

Denmark's capital, Copenhagen, secures the fourth position in the ranking. Germany has several cities that feature prominently in the ranking. Frankfurt, Munich, and Dusseldorf rank sixth, seventh, and tenth, respectively. Not a single US city is in the top 10 or the top 20. San Francisco is the highest-rated US city at 37th, suggesting that its qualities have, perhaps surprisingly, outweighed widely-chronicled problems of crime, homelessness and drug use in that Californian city.

The quality of living ranking considers factors such as political stability, healthcare, education, infrastructure, and socio-cultural environment. 

The following cities, from 11th to 20th, in order, are: The Hague; Wellington; Bern; Basel; Amsterdam; Luxembourg; Toronto; Ottowa; Berlin; and Montreal.

From 21st to 30th are: Melbourne; Perth; Calgary; Oslo; Hamburg; Stockholm; Stuttgart; Canberra; Adelaide,; and Singapore. 

Nuremberg; Paris; Tolouse; Helsinki; Brisbane; Brussels; San Francisco; Lyon; Lisbon; and New York run from 31st to 40th, respectively. 

A total of 241 cities are covered by the rankings. The lowest-ranked city is Khartoum, Sudan.