Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Living Green: Ranking the best (and worst) countries


Just because a country or place is environmentally “fit” doesn’t mean you’d want to spend your life there – think jungles or the Antarctic. But finding the perfect balance between what’s green and what’s livable could lead you to paradise. Aiming for that ideal, we researched the world’s greenest countries while also ensuring they were ones where people could thrive. Along the way, we also unearthed the worst places in the world to live.

We analysed data from top sources covering 141 nations to rank the planet’s greenest, most livable places.

How Countries Rate

1 Finland
2 Iceland
3 Norway
4 Sweden
5 Austria
8 Australia
19 New Zealand
23 USA

Bottom 5

137 Chad
138 Burkina Faso
139 Sierra Leone
140 Niger
141 Ethiopia

The world’s greenest, most livable cities

Using different data, we analysed 72 major international cities, ranking them in terms of being green and livable.

5 Best

1 Stockholm
2 Oslo
3 Munich
4 Paris
5 Frankfurt

5 Worst

68 Bangkok
69 Guangzhou
70 Mumbai
71 Shanghai
72 Beijing
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Worldwide Quality of Living Survey 2007

Mercer Human Resource Consulting Worldwide Quality of Living Survey 2007
Top 50 (Source: www.mercer.com)


Base City: New York, USA (=100)





Rank 2007


Rank 2006


City


Country


Index 2007


Index 2006












1


1


ZURICH


Switzerland


108.1


108.2

2


2


GENEVA


Switzerland


108.0


108.1

3


3


VANCOUVER


Canada


107.7


107.7

3


4


VIENNA


Austria


107.7


107.5

5


5


AUCKLAND


New Zealand


107.3


107.3

5


6


DUSSELDORF


Germany


107.3


107.2

7


7


FRANKFURT


Germany


107.1


107.0

8


8


MUNICH


Germany


106.9


106.8

9


9


BERN


Switzerland


106.5


106.5

9


9


SYDNEY


Australia


106.5


106.5

11


11


COPENHAGEN


Denmark


106.2


106.2

12


12


WELLINGTON


New Zealand


105.8


105.8

13


13


AMSTERDAM


The Netherlands


105.7


105.7

14


14


BRUSSELS


Belgium


105.6


105.6

15


15


TORONTO


Canada


105.4


105.4

16


16


BERLIN


Germany


105.2


105.1

17


17


MELBOURNE


Australia


105.0


105.0

18


18


LUXEMBOURG


Luxembourg


104.8


104.8

18


18


OTTAWA


Canada


104.8


104.8

20


20


STOCKHOLM


Sweden


104.7


104.7

21


21


PERTH


Australia


104.5


104.5

22


22


MONTREAL


Canada


104.3


104.3

23


23


NURNBERG


Germany


104.2


104.1

24


25


CALGARY


Canada


103.6


103.6

24


26


HAMBURG


Germany


103.6


103.4

26


31


OSLO


Norway


103.5


102.8

27


24


DUBLIN


Ireland


103.3


103.8

27


27


HONOLULU, HI


United States


103.3


103.3

29


28


SAN FRANCISCO, CA


United States


103.2


103.2

30


29


ADELAIDE


Australia


103.1


103.1

30


29


HELSINKI


Finland


103.1


103.1

32


31


BRISBANE


Australia


102.8


102.8

33


33


PARIS


France


102.7


102.7

34


34


SINGAPORE


Singapore


102.5


102.5

35


35


TOKYO


Japan


102.3


102.3

36


37


LYON


France


101.9


101.6

36


36


BOSTON, MA


United States


101.9


101.9

38


37


YOKOHAMA


Japan


101.7


101.6

39


39


LONDON


United Kingdom


101.2


101.2

40


40


KOBE


Japan


101.0


101.0

41


44


BARCELONA


Spain


100.6


100.2

42


45


MADRID


Spain


100.5


100.1

42


51


OSAKA


Japan


100.5


99.6

44


41


WASHINGTON, DC


United States


100.4


100.4

44


41


CHICAGO, IL


United States


100.4


100.4

46


43


PORTLAND, OR


United States


100.3


100.3

47


53


LISBON


Portugal


100.1


98.9

48


46


NEW YORK CITY, NY


United States


100.0


100.0

49


51


MILAN


Italy


99.9


99.6

49


47


SEATTLE, WA


United States


99.9


99.9

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