Mercer's global survey is based on an evaluation of 39 criteria for each city, grouped in 10 categories, including political and socio-economic, environment, medical and health considerations, education, transport and housing. The survey covers 221 cities, which are compared to New York as the base city, measuring quality of life and working conditions for overseas expatriates.
Wellington took 13th place and Sydney, the next Asia-Pacific city after Auckland, came in at 11th. Vienna is at the top of the list and Baghdad comes in last.
Mr Brown says the result comes as welcome news to a city that has worked very hard over the past year.
"Auckland has had a unique opportunity to showcase itself internationally during 2011 and we have a lot to be proud of," he says.
"Moving up a place on the scale is no small feat and I look forward to one day celebrating our place at the top of that list."
The Top 20
1 Vienna, Austria
2 Zurich, Switzerland
3 Auckland, New Zealand
4 Munich, Germany
5= Dosseldorf, Germany
Vancouver, Canada
7 Frankfurt, Germany
8 Geneva, Switzerland
9 Bern, Switzerland
9 Copenhagen, Denmark
11 Sydney, Australia
12 Amsterdam, Netherlands
13 Wellington, New Zealand
14 Ottawa, Canada
15 Toronto, Canada
16 Hamburg, Germany
17 Berlin, Germany
18 Melbourne, Australia
19 Luxembourg, Luxembourg
20 Stockholm, Sweden
See more on the survey.
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