Thailand Cities Do Not Rate On Mercer's Quality Of Living Survey

[Jingthing]

Thailand's HUB publicity programs have failed to impress the people at Mercer.

In Asean, Singapore rated an impressive FIRST PLACE in infrastructure and 25th overall.

I could see Chiang Mai being competitive in future in the unlikely event that they develop a decent public transportation system and also fix the smoky months disaster.

Vienna retains the top spot as the city with the world’s best quality of living, according to the Mercer 2012 Quality of Living Survey. Zurich and Auckland follow in second and third place, respectively, and Munich is in fourth place, followed by Vancouver, which ranked fifth. Düsseldorf dropped one spot to rank sixth followed by Frankfurt in seventh, Geneva in eighth, Copenhagen in ninth, and Bern and Sydney tied for tenth place.

http://www.mercer.com/press-releases/quality-of-living-report-2012

[krisb]

Who gives a crap what the 'people at mercer' think. 25million didnt visit Austria last year. When it comes to livable, Adelaide is better than Sydney in their 10th place that was already proven by Australians not by 'mercers'.

Edited February 8, 2013 by krisb

[h90]

Vienna....they have seen only downtown...the cheaper districts are flooded by immigrants and not so nice....

[Jingthing]

Who gives a crap what the 'people at mercer' think. 25million didnt visit Austria last year.

I reckon that people in cities that Mercer praised may give a hoot.

I also think Thailand would be happy to have a city on such a list whether it was from Mercer or whoever else.

Also I think this list is about quality of life for residents and not really about tourism appeal which Thailand obviously has in spades. Just ask the fine folks at Rosetta Stone Thai language courses.

Edited February 8, 2013 by Jingthing

[David48]

Sadly the list wasn't more extensive ... I would love to know where Pattaya nests on their list.

Do they do a Thailand Cities guide ... now that would be usefull ...

(just trying to make the OP Thai related)

.

[h90]

Sadly the list wasn't more extensive ... I would love to know where Pattaya nests on their list.

Do they do a Thailand Cities guide ... now that would be usefull ...

(just trying to make the OP Thai related)

.

is there a ranking for "most friendly"?

Thailand could win that....when I walked there people, mostly the females were very friendly.

[guzzi850m2]

Quality Of Living index is more an indication how expensive it is.

I lived in Copenhagen (no 9) before I moved permanently to Thailand and I don't miss it. Well okay it was nice to look at the girls when the winter finally broke and they started to dress with less and less as the temps. increased.

Expensive as hell there.

Edited February 8, 2013 by guzzi850m2

[krisb]

Who gives a crap what the 'people at mercer' think. 25million didnt visit Austria last year.

I reckon that people in cities that Mercer praised may give a hoot.

I also think Thailand would be happy to have a city on such a list whether it was from Mercer or whoever else.

Also I think this list is about quality of life for residents and not really about tourism appeal which Thailand obviously has in spades. Just ask the fine folks at Rosetta Stone Thai language courses.

I dont think anyones really heard of mercer or their list. Even if they have who cares about mercer or their list. How about the krisb list. Now theres a list!

[Rancid]

Chiang Mai will start to rate better as more Iron Lungs become available. In the non death-by-asphyxiation seasons though it is quite pleasant. There again the Thais are excited about a new generation of Chinese to rip-off, for most of them 10 meter visability is paradise so why bother changing anything for whinging yesterday's whitey? They can now all go home!

[jackr]

Vienna, Zurich and Auckland... I don't think you could drum up a trio of more mind-numbingly boring cities if you tried.

[waza]

All the Aussie capital cities in the top 40

[Swiss1960]

Maybe you guys should read what this report is about, then you can stop whining about missing Thailand cities. Main point is that the full list is not made public, so Thai cities could be in the list, but not mentioned in the paper report. And it is not about tourists, it is for this:

"Mercer conducts this survey annually to help multinational companies and other organizations compensate employees fairly when placing them on international assignments." Ratings:

Political and social environment (political stability, crime, law enforcement)

Economic environment (currency exchange regulations, banking services)

Socio-cultural environment (censorship, limitations on personal freedom)

Medical and health considerations (medical supplies and services, infectious diseases, sewage, waste disposal, air pollution, etc.)

Schools and education (standard and availability of international schools)

Public services and transportation (electricity, water, public transportation, traffic congestion, etc.)

Recreation (restaurants, theatres, movie theatres, sports and leisure, etc.)

Consumer goods (availability of food/daily consumption items, cars, etc.)

Housing (rental housing, household appliances, furniture, maintenance services)

Natural environment (climate, record of natural disasters)

Reading helps, guys... and looking at some of the ratings, you should easily see why BKK might not be mentioned in the top 10...

[chiangmaikelly]

Does not being mentioned in a newspaper article make the topic Thai oriented?

[Swiss1960]

Does not being mentioned in a newspaper article make the topic Thai oriented?

It does, when you look at the rating parms and think about why no Thai city made it on the list... and could give the Thai government something to think...

[chiangmaikelly]

Does not being mentioned in a newspaper article make the topic Thai oriented?

It does, when you look at the rating parms and think about why no Thai city made it on the list... and could give the Thai government something to think...

So Mr Swiss guy do you think we should post all the lists that Thailand did not get on? It could be a new category; Lists that Thailand did not get on, or stories not about Thailand, or great people, places and cities not in Thailand.

Edited February 8, 2013 by chiangmaikelly

[draftvader]

Vienna, Zurich and Auckland... I don't think you could drum up a trio of more mind-numbingly boring cities if you tried.

Montevideo, Nottingham & Christchurch. Do I win anything?

[Swiss1960]

Does not being mentioned in a newspaper article make the topic Thai oriented?

It does, when you look at the rating parms and think about why no Thai city made it on the list... and could give the Thai government something to think...

So Mr Swiss guy do you think we should post all the lists that Thailand did not get on? It could be a new category; Lists that Thailand did not get on, or stories not about Thailand, or great people, places and cities not in Thailand.

well, feel free to do so and post the criteria which is underlying... then we can discuss why Thailand / Thai cities did not make it on the list, whether it would be positive to BE on the list and what would have to be done to get on the list... would then be pretty Thailand linked...

[scotto]

I reckon they should have a HUB list thailand would win hands down!!!

[DP25]

All Asian cities do poorly on this. The top 5 cities in 'Asia' on the list are Aucklang, Syndey, Wellington, Melbourne, and Perth. This list is solely made by plugging statistics for various things in to a formula, a process that is fraught with problems, and things like fun, interesting, friendly etc do not count.

In other ranking systems, such as the HSBC expat survey, which asks actual expats living in various places about what they like rather than just plugging numbers (that may be inaccurate in the first place) in to a formula, Thailand does quite well. And Singapore is ranked the best in the world. Makes sense to me as it is certainly more desirable than any of the top 5 'Asian' cities according to Mercer.

http://www.expatexpl...com/#/countries

Edited February 8, 2013 by DP25

[bangkockney]

We only know positions 1-49 and the lowest placed city, out of 221.

The thread title is misleading.

Edited February 8, 2013 by bangkockney

[Jingthing]

We only know positions 1-49 and the lowest placed city, out of 221.

The thread title is misleading.

Time to shave my head and do a youtube apology video.

[mca]

Vienna....

It means nothing to me.........

[kurnell]

They need to change the criteria to make it more realistic:

1. Ease of finding chicks

2. Finding a beer at midnight

3. Breaking the law and getting away with it

[wayned]

We only know positions 1-49 and the lowest placed city, out of 221.

The thread title is misleading.

Time to shave my head and do a youtube apology video.

So you have hair! Elimnates all of the bald folks wearing "I am Jingthing T shirts".

[mca]

We only know positions 1-49 and the lowest placed city, out of 221.

The thread title is misleading.

Time to shave my head and do a youtube apology video.

So you have hair! Elimnates all of the bald folks wearing "I am Jingthing T shirts".

Jing usually wears an " I am Miss Thang" t-shirt.

[chiangmaikelly]

Does not being mentioned in a newspaper article make the topic Thai oriented?

It does, when you look at the rating parms and think about why no Thai city made it on the list... and could give the Thai government something to think...

So Mr Swiss guy do you think we should post all the lists that Thailand did not get on? It could be a new category; Lists that Thailand did not get on, or stories not about Thailand, or great people, places and cities not in Thailand.

well, feel free to do so and post the criteria which is underlying... then we can discuss why Thailand / Thai cities did not make it on the list, whether it would be positive to BE on the list and what would have to be done to get on the list... would then be pretty Thailand linked...

You make a good point. It has been increasingly difficult to find good Thai bashing fodder with the economy doing so well, tourism up, more people retiring here, investment flowing in from all the major auto companies, currency in great shape. We need some new areas to pick on. I was thinking the 10 best roads, or Cities that excel at cheese making.

Only a loony person would try and compare Singapore or Honolulu with cities in Thailand based on infrastructure and the other areas that award points to Vienna and Vancouver. The survey is talking about how rich people live. My family just purchased a luxury home close to the ocean for under $100,000 dollars in Thailand. The same amount of money would buy me a privy (with no running water) in Honolulu.

Edited February 9, 2013 by chiangmaikelly

[David48]

We only know positions 1-49 and the lowest placed city, out of 221.

The thread title is misleading.

Time to shave my head and do a youtube apology video.

This time ... could you please keep your clothes on ... and avoid taking photos in front of highly reflective surfaces ...

.

[Jingthing]

...

Only a loony person would try and compare Singapore or Honolulu with cities in Thailand based on infrastructure and the other areas that award points to Vienna and Vancouver.

...

Is Thailand on a different planet, home to a different species? If not, not so crazy to compare anything to other countries. If it doesn't stack up, it doesn't stack up. Singapore is in the same region and does. Are they looking for excuses?

[rene123]

Maybe you guys should read what this report is about, then you can stop whining about missing Thailand cities. Main point is that the full list is not made public, so Thai cities could be in the list, but not mentioned in the paper report. And it is not about tourists, it is for this:

"Mercer conducts this survey annually to help multinational companies and other organizations compensate employees fairly when placing them on international assignments." Ratings:

Political and social environment (political stability, crime, law enforcement)

Economic environment (currency exchange regulations, banking services)

Socio-cultural environment (censorship, limitations on personal freedom)

Medical and health considerations (medical supplies and services, infectious diseases, sewage, waste disposal, air pollution, etc.)

Schools and education (standard and availability of international schools)

Public services and transportation (electricity, water, public transportation, traffic congestion, etc.)

Recreation (restaurants, theatres, movie theatres, sports and leisure, etc.)

Consumer goods (availability of food/daily consumption items, cars, etc.)

Housing (rental housing, household appliances, furniture, maintenance services)

Natural environment (climate, record of natural disasters)

Reading helps, guys... and looking at some of the ratings, you should easily see why BKK might not be mentioned in the top 10...

Good post, Swiss.

However, it is like all statistics, it only applies to certain people. No two people are alike in their wishes and wants. Despite loving the outdoors, I would be bored to death living in some village of Thailand, but obviously that fits some people perfectly. Likewise, I would be bored silly living in some of the high rated cities on the Mercer list.

[chiangmaikelly]

...

Only a loony person would try and compare Singapore or Honolulu with cities in Thailand based on infrastructure and the other areas that award points to Vienna and Vancouver.

...

Is Thailand on a different planet, home to a different species? If not, not so crazy to compare anything to other countries. If it doesn't stack up, it doesn't stack up. Singapore is in the same region and does. Are they looking for excuses?

Would you like to watch a game of football between a grade school team and a group of professionals. What would be the point? That you want to make fun of the grade school players? It costs millions to put a professional on the field. It costs millions to buy a view condo in Singapore. It cost thousands to buy in Thailand. It is not a level playing field. Singapore is one of the most expensive places in the world and Thailand is one of the cheapest. Do you want to compare beach front lifestyles between the South of France and Somalia?