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Geneva airport bus (click on image to view larger)

London, England (GenevaLunch) - The answer to where most of us would like to live, as measured by Mercer’s 2009 Quality of Living annual report, is Vienna, followed promptly by Zurich and Geneva. Bottom of the heap? Baghdad. The other two cities in the world’s top five are Vancouver, Canada and Auckland, New Zealand.

The report measures 215 cities around the world and is designed, says the consulting firm, to help governments and major companies that are placing employees in international assignments. Cities are scored using a point system that measures them against New York, which is 100. Vienna in 2009 scored a top 108.6 while Zurich has 108 and Geneva 107.9. Last year Zurich was in first place.

Baghdad has a sorry score of 14.4.

European cities dominate the quality of living list, with Honolulu as the top US city, in slot number 29, and Singapore the top Asian city in 26th place.

The 2009 report also measures cities for infrastructure, identifying “the cities with the best infrastructure based on electricity supply, water availability, telephone and mail services, public transport provision, traffic congestion and the range of international flights from local airports.” Swiss cities come out well below other European cities in this area, with Zurich in 14th place and Geneva in 35th.

Asian cities have three of the top five places on the infrastructure list, with Singapore in first place, Tsukuba and Yokohama, Japan in fourth and fifth places respectively. Copenhagen, Denmark and Munich, Germany were in second and third places.