Management consultancy Mercer said Vienna scored the highest for overall quality of living in the 215-city survey after improvements in Austria's political and social environment, knocking the Swiss city of Zurich into second position.

Third in the list came another Swiss city, Geneva, followed by Vancouver, Canada, and Auckland, New Zealand, in shared fourth place.

Baghdad, Iraq, came last despite slight improvements in its infrastructure and moves to encourage investment.

Three German cities made the top 10 -- Dusseldorf, Munich and Frankfurt -- with the list rounded out by Bern in Switzerland and Sydney, Australia.

The highest U.S. ranking in the 2009 Worldwide Quality of Living Survey was Honolulu which came 29th while Washington and New York remained in positions 44 and 49 respectively.

London came 38th in the list which is designed to help governments and companies formulate international packages for their employees.

"As a result of the current financial crisis, multinationals are looking to review their international assignment policies with a view to cutting costs," said Slagin Parakatil, senior researcher at Mercer, in a statement.

"Many companies plan to reduce the number of medium to long-term international assignments and localize their expatriate compensation packages where possible though the hardship allowance, based on quality of living criteria, will remain an essential component of the package."

Singapore was the top-scoring Asian city, coming in 26th which was up six places from a year ago due to its growing importance as a financial center and its wide range of international and private schools.

Beijing moved up three places to 113, boosted by improvements in public transport facilities from the Olympics last August.

Singapore also came first in a separate ranking based on city infrastructure, which examined standards of electricity, water, telephone, mail, public transport, traffic congestion and the range of international flights from local airports.

Singapore was followed in the infrastructure rankings by Munich, Copenhagen, and Tsukuba in Japan. Again, Baghdad came last.

The rankings, based on a point-scoring index in which New York is the base city with 100, are based on 39 quality-of-life determinants such as political stability, schooling, recreation, housing and natural environment.

In Central and South America, San Juan in Puerto Rico retained the highest ranking at 72 followed by Montevideo at 79.

"Political and security issues, and the incidence of natural disasters, continue to hinder the improvement of quality of living in the region. Shortages of consumer goods have also contributed to a decline in quality of living in some cities," said Parakatil.

在一年一度的全球城市生活质量调查中，维也纳击败苏黎世当选全球生活质量最佳的城市。排行榜的前十位多为欧洲城市所占据。

据美世管理咨询公司介绍，这项调查共有215个城市参评，维也纳在总体生活质量方面得分最高，瑞士的苏黎世屈居第二，这都得益于奥地利政治和社会环境的改善。

瑞士的另一个城市日内瓦位居第三，加拿大的温哥华与新西兰的奥克兰并列第四。

尽管伊拉克首都巴格达的基础设施略有改善，并正采取措施鼓励投资，但在今年的排行中仍垫底。

跻身排行榜前十位的其它几个城市包括：德国的三大城市——杜塞尔多夫、慕尼黑和法兰克福以及瑞典的伯尔尼和澳大利亚的悉尼。

在“2009全球城市生活质量”排行榜上，排名最靠前的美国城市是位居第29位的檀香山；华盛顿和纽约保持原位，分列第44位和第49位。

伦敦名列第38位，该排行榜旨在帮助政府和公司制定外派员工的薪酬。

美世咨询的高级研究员斯拉金•帕拉卡迪尔在一份声明中说：“由于受目前金融危机的影响，跨国公司希望能重审他们的海外派遣计划，以削减成本。”

“很多公司计划削减中长期海外派遣计划，并在可能的地方将外派员工的薪酬本地化，不过基于生活标准的困难津贴仍将是薪酬中的主要部分。”

新加坡在亚洲城市中排名最高，位居第26位，比去年上升了六个榜位，这主要是因为新加坡作为金融中心的地位日趋重要，而且它拥有众多的国际和私立学校。

北京也上升了三个榜位，名列第113位，这主要是因为去年8月的奥运会对北京的公共交通设施起到了一定的改善作用。

People pass the Museum for Modern Art MUMOK at the Museums Quartier in Vienna March 25, 2009.

REUTERS/Herwig Prammer