The international human resources consulting firm Mercer has rated Singapore the top city in Asia for quality of life in a report released this month.
The next five cities were all Japanese: Yokohama, Osaka, Tokyo, Kobe, and Nagoya. Asia’s top 5 remained unaffected from last year.
The Mercer 2015 Quality of Living report surveyed over 440 cities worldwide and took account of factors such as political steadiness, crime, education, housing, public infrastructure, medical services and utilities.
The annual survey is broadly used by multinational companies to decide recompense and hardship allowances for employees working overseas.
Singapore is affluent in public transport and the kind of luxury condominiums preferential by expats. English is also generally spoken and the education standards on offer privately are among the uppermost in Asia. While Japan has high quality public services, as well as transportation, the language barrier remains a main topic for expats.
Somewhere else in Asia, Hong Kong came 7th followed by Seoul and Taipei. Kuala Lumpur was 10th, ranking second in Southeast Asia.
China’s breakdown to make the top ten was ascribed to high levels of air pollution and unbalanced supplies of clean water.
In South Asia, Colombo was rated top followed by Hyderabad and Pune in India. Business centers such as Mumbai and New Delhi fell down on water supply, pollution, traffic and overpopulation.
“The assignment policies of some international businesses may be based on an supposition that Asia-Pacific is a harmonized region, but this is surely not the case,” said Mario Ferraro, Mercer’s global mobility leader for Asia, the Middle East and Africa, in the report, adding: “A number of Asian cities are working hard to get better their reputation as locations of choice for foreign investment.”
