North America

Canadian cities continue to offer a high quality of living, providing both local and expatriate residents with robust infrastructure and a breadth of easily accessible public services, from public transportation to health care. Relatively low crime levels also help Canadian cities rank highly in personal safety.

Similarly, most cities in the United States maintain a high quality of living. Yet American cities overall offer less in terms of personal safety than Canadian cities do. The lingering economic crisis, marked by persistently high unemployment, may further impair the quality of living in the United States.

Listen to Mercer’s Steve Nurney discuss the 2011 Quality of Living survey results for North America.

Central America, Latin America and the Caribbean

Political instability, income inequality, and economic uncertainty remain a problem for many cities in Latin America. Several resort destinations, such as San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Montevideo, Uruguay, and the popular cultural draw, Buenos Aires, Argentina, remain attractive destinations for expatriates – but others have a lower quality of living. The political climate in Havana, Cuba, and Caracas, Venezuela, and the two countries’ international relations, render the capital cities less livable, particularly for expatriates.

High crime rates continue to plague many of the region’s urban areas, leading to its cities’ relatively poor showing in Mercer’s personal safety ranking. Drug trafficking and drug cartels are a relentless major problem for Colombia, Mexico and other countries in the region. High levels of street crime, like car and home robberies, along with kidnapping for ransom, continue to endanger the lives of urban residents, especially expatriates.

The aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, which destroyed much of the country’s already-weakened infrastructure, has brought on an epidemic of cholera and other waterborne diseases, further hurting the nation. Port-au-Prince, its capital, is among the lowest-ranked cities in our survey.

Listen to Mercer’s Sandra Huertas (English, Spanish) and Renata Herrera (Portuguese) discuss the 2011 Quality of Living survey results for South America, Central America and the Caribbean