According to the annual World-wide Quality of Living Survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, for the second year in succession, Zurich narrowly pipped Geneva at the top of the index with a score of 108.1, compared to the latter's score of 108. The analysis covers 215 cities which are assessed on an evaluation of 39 separate criteria including political, social, economic and environmental factors, personal safety and health, education, transport and other public services. Cities are ranked against New York as the base city, which has an index score of 100. Auckland (5th) and Sydney (tied for 9th) were both in the top ten and Wellington placed 12th. However, apart from Vancouver in 3rd, European cities tend to dominate the top of the rankings with Vienna, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich and Bern completing the top ten. The only UK city to figure in the top 50 was London, placed 39th. France has two cities in the top 50: Paris at 33rd and Lyon at joint 36th. The top five cities in the Americas were all located in Canada. US cities in the top 50 included Honolulu, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, Chicago, Portland, New York City (48th), and Seattle (49th). Cities in the Asia Pacific region were found in the lower end of the top 50, with Singapore 34th, Tokyo 35th and Yokohama 38th. Osaka, in 42nd place in the index, has made one of the largest improvements since last year, rising 8 places to 42 from 51. Mercer also compiles a health and sanitation index, which shows that cities in North America are the healthiest places in which to live. Abu Dhabi and Dubai are the highest-ranking Middle Eastern cities and share position 58 with a score of 112.9. Singapore ranks in 50th place with a score of 114, while Hong Kong is at position 117 and scores 80.8. Shanghai and Beijing are China’s highest and lowest-ranking cities in 134th and 166th place respectively (scoring 73.8 and 60.3).