If you havn't heard the news yesterday, it was reported that Singapore has come out tops in Asia for having the highest quality of living, according to an annual survey by consulting firm Mercer. The study was based on a number of factors including the political and social environment, medical and health considerations, public services and transportation, and housing.
Now globally, Singapore is ranked 32, after climbing two spots from last year. In Asia, Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Osaka are ranked just behind Singapore. Overall, European cities dominate the top global rankings. Zurich scores the highest for overall quality of living, retaining its number one position from 2007. Luxembourg is tops for personal safety. At the bottom end of the scale is Baghdad, which has the lowest ranking for quality of living and personal safety. I found this entire article on ChannelNewsAsia.com.
When I went to Mercer official website, I found out that Auckland, New Zealand was the top city in the Asia Pacific region for having the highest quality of living, it is tied in 5th spot in the overall rankings followed by Sydney, Australia (10th globally) . Singapore is ranked 32 globally but if I counted correctly, we are ranked 7th in the Asia Pacific region for having the highest quality of living. But if we count the New Zealand and Australian cities above Singapore, then of course we would have been first. I would like to think Australia is part of Asia, I believe it is recently, afterall their football team is competing in the Asian division of the 2010 World Cup qualifier. We do however, came out on top in one category which is the Personal Safety category. We are ranked 1st in the Asia Pacific region but 9th globally followed closely by Auckland, New Zealand and Wellington, New Zealand both which are tied in the 10th spot globally.
I think even if we are not the top country in the Asia Pacific region when it comes to the quality of living, we should be proud with what we have now. I think everyone would agree with me that the quality of living here is very good, we have good social environment, transportation, housing and everything else you could think of. The government has provided us with everything that we need and ensuring that we are having a good life. It is important to point out that none of the other Southeast Asian cities such as Kuala Lumpur or Jakarta did actually made it to the top 50 of the list. So I think that shows that we are at least leading a better living standard than the people in our neighbouring countries without any disrespect intended here. I'm just trying to break down the facts. But again, it is just a survey, it could be right and it could be wrong but it's always to see our country being compared with some of the top cities in the world when it comes to such issue. It is also important to point out that with a higher standard of living, the cost of living will increase too and I believe we are one of the top cities in this region with the higest cost of living. This is just my opinion, I dont have any facts or surveys to back it up unfortunately.
Meanwhile, it was good to be ranked as the top country in the Asia Pacific region in the Personal Safety category. This category is based on internal stability, effectiveness of law enforcement and relationships with other countries and I think we are doing very well in all those things mentioned. In terms of the crime rates, I believe we have one of the smallest crime rates in the region, you dont hear a lot of crimes happening everyday here. And we have good relationships with a lot of countries so it comes as no surprise that we are ranked 1st in the personal safety category. Well thats about it I guess. Some interesting statistics to report on. I have nothing else to add. Hopefully next year, we can improve our position in the standard of living category and maintain our number one spot in the personal safety category.
If you disagree with the statistics, please do let me know but for now, see you next time.
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