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LIFE is better in Sydney than Melbourne but the streets are just as safe according to a new survey. The harbour city has topped Melbourne in a ranking of 221 cities. Sydney came in at 11th place while Melbourne just made it to the top 20, sliding in at 18th place. For those looking for more out of life a trip across the ditch could improve things with Auckland taking out third place. The 2011 Mercer Quality of Living survey judged quality of life on 39 items including health services, public transport, housing and recreation. It also ranked personal safety for city dwellers by looking at internal stability, crime levels, law enforcement effectiveness and international relations. Melbourne and Sydney both came in at 25 in the safety ranking, cities in Switzerland and New Zealand as well as Abu Dhabi. The survey is done each year to help companies decide what incentives to pay when asking employees to move cities for work. It ranked 221 cities against New York as the base. Mercer senior researcher Slagin Parakatil said the Asia Pacific region was highly diverse. "Countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Singapore dominate the top of both our general and personal safety rankings, in part because they have been continuously investing in infrastructure and public services,'' Mr Parakatil said. "Nevertheless, many Asian cities rank at the bottom, mainly due to social instability, political turmoil, natural disasters such as typhoons and tsunamis, and lack of suitable infrastructure for expatriates.'' Other major cities in the quality of life list included San Francisco (30), London (38), Washington (43) and New York (47). Baghdad was the world's least safe city, followed by N'Djamena in Chad, Abidjan in Cote d'Ivoire, Bangui in Central African Republic and Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Top 5 Cities: Quality of Life Vienna, Austria (1st) Zurich, Switzerland (2nd) Auckland, New Zealand (3rd) Munich, Germany (4th) Vancouver, Canada (tied 5th) Dadiüsseldorf, Germany (tied 5th) Top 5 Cities: Personal Safety Luxembourg, Luxembourg(1st) Bern, Switzerland (tied 2nd) Helsinki, Finland (tied 2nd) Zurich, Switzerland (tied 2nd) Vienna, Austria (5th) Top 5 Asia Pacific Cities: Quality of Life Auckland (3rd) Sydney (11th) Wellington (13th) Melbourne (18th) Perth (21st) Top 5 Asia Pacific Cities: Personal Safety Auckland (tied 9th) Wellington (tied 9th) Canberra (tied 25th) Melbourne (tied 25th) Perth (tied 25th) Sydney (tied 25th)

Women feeling hemmed in by work hours | The Australian

I was always led to believe that Australia was lean,clean and green. Yet another illusion shattered..:sad: Sky News