text: Intermediate 
  Vienna is the worlds best city to live in, Baghdad is the worst and London, Paris and New York do not even enter the top 35, according to international research into quality of life.
  German-speaking cities dominate the rankings in the 18th Mercer Quality of Life study, with Vienna joined by Zurich, Munich, Dusseldorf and Frankfurt in the top seven.
  Paris has dropped down the table  it has fallen ten places to 37th, just ahead of London at 39th, mostly because of the terrorist attacks on the city.
  The study examined social and economic conditions, health, education, housing and the environment. It is used by big companies to decide where they should open of ces and factories and how much they should pay staff.
  Helena Hartlauer, 32, from Vienna, said she was not surprised at her citys top position. The citys social democratic government has a long tradition of investing money in high-quality social housing, which makes Vienna less expensive than other major cities.
  I live in a 100sq-metre apartment in a good area about 20 minutes walk from the city centre. But my rent is just 800 (625) a month. A similar apartment in London would cost over 2,000 and even more in New York, ranked 44th in the table.
  US cities perform relatively badly in the study, mostly because of issues around personal safety and crime. The highest ranking city in the US is San Francisco, at 28th; Boston is 34th. Canadian cities, led by Vancouver, do much better than their US rivals in the table.
  You dont realize how safe Vienna is until you go abroad, said Hartlauer. We also have terri c public transport, with the underground working 24 hours at weekends and it only costs 1 per trip.
  Vienna bene ted enormously from the fall of the Berlin Wall, becoming the gateway to Eastern European countries that often have historic connections to the former Austro-Hungarian empire.
  Our big USP (unique selling point) is our geographical location, said Martin Eichtinger, Austrian ambassador to London, who lived in Vienna for 20 years. The fall of the Berlin Wall helped make Vienna a hub for companies wanting to do business in Central Europe.
  According to the World Bank, Austria has one of the highest  gures for GDP (gross domestic product) per person in the world, just behind the US and ahead of Germany and Britain, although below neighbouring Switzerland.
  Mercer says Zurich in Switzerland has the worlds second highest quality of life but the Viennese say their city is far more fun. There are more students in Vienna than any other German-speaking city, said Hartlauer. Its a very fast growing, young and lively city, she added.
  Vienna has long been overlooked by British weekend city break tourists, who instead go to Barcelona or Berlin and tend to think of Austria as somewhere for skiing, lakes and mountains.
  But, after an increase in budget  ights from British cities such as Manchester and Edinburgh, Vienna is becoming a more popular destination. In 2015, there were 588,000 British visitors to Vienna, 18% more than the year before.
  Vienna has ranked top in the last seven surveys, said Mercer. It scores highly in a number of categories; it provides a safe and stable environment to live in, a high standard of public transport and good recreational facilities.
  London has never been in the quality-of-life top ten, says Mercer, damaged by its poor scores for air pollution, traf c congestion and climate. After London, Edinburgh is the next-ranking British city, in 46th place.
  Paris has suffered the biggest fall in the most recent rankings. Paris has remained stable for several years but has, this year, dropped ten places, said Mercer. The drop was mostly due to the terrorist attacks in 2015 because safety is a very important factor in the survey.
  Auckland in New Zealand was the highest ranking English-speaking city in the survey, in third place, followed by Vancouver in  fth. Australian cities also do well in the survey, with Sydney 10th and Melbourne 15th.
  War and political unrest are behind all the worst- ranked cities in the world. Surprisingly, Damascus is named as only the seventh worst, ranked better than Baghdad, Bangui in Central African Republic, Sanaa in Yemen, Port-au-Prince in Haiti, Khartoum in Sudan and NDjamena in Chad.