Sydney has again cracked the official top ten of the world's best cities to live in, while four other Australian capitals are ranked in the top 35.
New South Wales's harbourside capital is 10th in Mercer's Worldwide Quality of Living Survey 2008, dropping one spot from ninth in last year's survey.
Rob Knox from Mercer Global index says a number of factors contributed to a city's quality.
“Political and social environment, economic environment and even things like public services and transportation…when you take it into a global context, Sydney has rated very favourably in all the key measures that we look at.”
Melbourne has held its 2007 rank of 17th, as did Perth at 21st, while Adelaide improved fractionally up to 29th from 30th last year.
Brisbane rounds out the Australian cities rated in the global survey of 215 cities released today, coming in at 34th in 2008 compared to 32nd last year.
In comparison, France's cosmopolitan Paris is ranked at 32nd, while the top-rated United States' cities are Hawaii's Honolulu at 28th followed by California's San Francisco at 29th.
Baghdad, the war-torn Iraqi capital sits on the bottom of the list.
Top Cities - Quality of life
1 Zurich
2 Vienna
2 Geneva
4 Vancouver
5 Auckland
6 Dusseldorf
7 Munich
7 Frankfurt
9 Bern
10 Sydney.
Other Australian cities - Melbourne 17, Perth 21, Adelaide 29, Brisbane 34.
Top Cities - Personal Safety
1 Luxembourg.
2 Bern
2 Geneva
2 Helsinki
2 Zurich
6 Vienna
7 Oslo
7 Stockholm
9 Singapore
10 Auckland
10 Wellington
Australian cities - Melbourne, Perth, Sydney (tied 29), Adelaide, Brisbane (tied 49).
Worst rated city on both lists: Baghdad.