Riyadh, Jeddah quality of living worst in Gulf

Residents in two of the biggest cities in Saudi Arabia, flush with petrodollars, have the lowest quality of living of any major city in the Gulf, according to a survey by consultancy firm Mercer.

The firm ranked Riyadh and Jeddah 164th and 162nd respectively out of 215 cities worldwide in its 2008 Quality of Living Survey, released on Tuesday.

The survey included six cities in the Gulf and five other Middle Eastern cities, of which Dubai was judged to have the highest quality of living, ranked in 80th place, followed by Abu Dhabi in 88th place.

The rankings are based on a point index of 39 ‘quality of living’ factors, including political stability, crime, censorship, limitations on personal freedom, medical supplies and services, infectious diseases and sewage.

Manama in Bahrain was the third highest ranked Gulf state at 123, followed by Kuwait City at 133.

Beirut (179), Tehrain (176) and Sanna in Yemen (208) were all ranked among the worst cities in the world for quality of living. The worst country in the world to live in was, perhaps unsurprisingly, Baghdad.

The ranking of most Middle East countries included in the survey did not change markedly from Mercer's 2007 survey.

Slagin Parakatil, senior researcher at Mercer, said personal safety and political tensions continued to hold Middle East cities' ratings back despite massive investments in infrastructure, health and sanitation.

“Personal safety and political tensions remain stumbling blocks and account for the low ranking of many of the region’s cities,” Parakatil said in a statement.

The city with the highest quality of living was Zurich in Switzerland, followed by Vienna in Austria, Geneva in Switzerland, Vancouver in Canada and Auckland in New Zealand.

Mercer also ranked cities separately for personal safety, in which both Dubai and Abu Dhabi saw a drastic improvement in their ranking compared to the overall quality of living survey. Dubai was ranked 47th, while Abu Dhabi was ranked 33rd.

The city with the highest personal safety was Luxembourg, followed by Bern, Geneva, Helsinki, Zurich and Vienna.

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