Mercer’s survey is seen as one of the most comprehensive of its type in the world and is conducted annually to enable multinational companies and other organisations compensate employees fairly when placing them on international assignments.
In addition to valuable data on relative quality of living, Mercer’s 21st survey provides assessment for more than 450 cities throughout the world.
This latest ranking includes 231 of these cities.
According to the survey many cities around the world still offer attractive environments in which to do business, and best understand that quality of living is an essential component of a city’s attractiveness for businesses and mobile talent.
According to the ranking Port Louis ranks 83 globally in the quality of living and 59th for safety worldwide.
In Africa Port Louis was closely followed for overall quality of living by three South African cities, namely Durban (88), Cape Town (95) and Johannesburg (96), although these cities still rank low for personal safety.
Issues around water scarcity contributed to Cape Town falling one place this year. Conversely, Bangui (230) scored the lowest for the continent and also ranked lowest for personal safety (230).
“Strong, on-the-ground capabilities are integral to the global operations of most international businesses and are in large part driven by the personal and professional wellbeing of the individuals that companies place in those locations,” said Nicol Mullins, Principal Leader – Career Business at Mercer.
Durban is South Africa’s best city up from last year’s position, followed by Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Vienna is still the world’s best city, retaining the position for a decade.