Singapore owns Asia's best quality-of-living standards: Mercer report

Singapore was ranked the best in Asia in terms of quality-of-living standards, according to the Mercer 2015 Quality of Living Rankings released on Wednesday.

Mercer said in a media release that Singapore was also ranked the 26th worldwide, right ahead of San Francisco. While in this ranking system, Vienna in Austria held the first place globally.

Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur was the second-highest ranking city in Southeast Asia, and held the 84th place globally. Tokyo of Japan came in tops for East Asian countries, and 44th overall.

The rankings also identified emerging Asian cities such as Tai Chung in China's Taiwan at the 99th place, and Xi'an and Chongqing in west China both at 142nd.

Challenges faced by these Chinese cities as business destinations are clean water provision and air pollution; however, advances in the telecommunications and consumer sectors have offset their disadvantages on the ranking system, Mercer said.

Zurich in Switzerland, Auckland in New Zealand, and Munich in Germany were placed second, third, and fourth respectively.

The global consulting firm added that European cities as a whole "dominate the top of the ranking along with major cities in Australia and New Zealand."

The aim of Mercer's annual survey is to "help multinational companies and other employers compensate employees fairly when placing them on international assignments."

The global consulting firm evaluated living conditions in more than 440 cities worldwide based on ten categories of factors, such as political and social environment, economic environment, socio- cultural environment, public services and transportation, medical and health considerations, and schools and education, among others. Endi