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Depending on who you read, Singapore is either the 18th, 26th or 54th most liveable city in the world.
In the latest issue of global affairs magazine Monocle, Singapore is ranked 18th in its annual Top 25 Most Liveable Cities 2009 index, above Montreal, Kyoto and Geneva. Zurich was top, followed by Copenhagen and Tokyo.
Yet, barely a month ago, global business intelligence company The Economist Intelligence Unit placed Singapore in 54th spot, out of 140 cities, in its annual liveability ranking, behind Osaka and Hong Kong and ahead of Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta.
In international consulting firm Mercer's quality of living survey published in April, Singapore finished in the 26th spot - the highest placing among Asian cities including Tokyo.
What is one to make of the different rankings since they all purport to tell people the same thing: which cities are better or worse to live in, using criteria such as housing, health-care services and public infrastructure.
'They are just about as reliable as university rankings,' said assistant professor Alexius Pereira, a sociologist with an interest in globalisation at the National University of Singapore.
He added: 'These so-called rankings are specifically for expatriate living. And we all know expat life and local life can be worlds apart.'
Singaporeans who have lived in some of the cities featured in the rankings have also raised their eyebrows at the findings.
'Singapore is more 'liveable' than Tokyo? I wonder why I?have never?noticed that?' asked Dr Sim Choon Kiat, 41, when told that Mercer had ranked the Japanese capital below Singapore.
The research fellow, who has lived in Tokyo for 14 years, added: 'Well, it all depends on how the survey defines the word 'liveable' and what?it means by quality of living.'
Mr Derrick Kon, Singapore global mobility leader of Mercer's information product solutions, agreed that any assessment of the quality of life would be subjective.
The sample size, the number of cities surveyed and the timing of the study can affect the results, he added.
While all three rankings have the same objective, they use slightly different criteria.
The Economist Intelligence Unit - the business information arm of The Economist Group, publisher of the international affairs magazine, The Economist - assesses the living conditions in 140 cities around the world. It assigns a rating for over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories - stability, health care, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.
Mercer's rankings are also based on a point-scoring index and cover 215 cities which are analysed according to 39 factors, grouped in 10 categories.
These categories are political and social environment, economic environment, socio-cultural environment, health and sanitation, education, public services and transportation, recreation, consumer goods, and housing and natural environment.
Monocle goes beyond hard economic data and includes 'soft' factors such as hours of sunshine, ease of opening a business and a city's tolerance of alternative lifestyles.
Singaporeans who have lived abroad think that such rankings do not convey a true picture of what life in the cities is like.
Civil servant Sarah Lin, 25, who has lived in Kathmandu, London, Rome, New York and Cambridge, said: 'There are a lot of things about cities that can't really be tracked in indexes.?I can't dispute the fact that Singapore is a very liveable city, but it's not the most exciting place to be.
'The best living experiences I've had were in places with infrastructures that cannot compete with Singapore but which have so much of their own identity and such strong cultures that you feel like the city itself is a living thing.'
Top cities
Here are the top 10 cities to live in, according to three quality-of-life surveys:
Mercer's Quality of Living Survey
1. Vienna (Austria)
2. Zurich (Switzerland)
3. Geneva (Switzerland)
4. Vancouver (Canada)
5. Auckland (New Zealand)
6. Dusseldorf (Germany)
7. Munich (Germany)
8. Frankfurt (Germany)
9. Bern (Switzerland)
10. Sydney (Australia)
Monocle's Most Liveable Cities Index
1. Zurich (Switzerland)
2. Copenhagen (Denmark)
3. Tokyo (Japan)
4. Munich (Germany)
5. Helsinki (Finland)
6. Stockholm (Sweden)
7. Vienna (Austria)
8. Paris (France)
9. Melbourne (Australia)
10. Berlin (Germany)
The Economist Intelligence Unit's Liveability Ranking
1. Vancouver (Canada)
2. Vienna (Austria)
3. Melbourne (Australia)
4. Toronto (Canada)
5. Perth (Australia)
Calgary (Canada)
7. Helsinki (Finland)
8. Geneva (Switzerland)
Sydney (Australia)
Zurich (Switzerland)
(Note: There is a tie for 5th and 8th positions)
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