Vienna ranked best city in world; Baghdad worst

US cities failed to crack the top 25 list of world's most livable cities, according to a recent survey that ranks Vienna as the best and Baghdad as the worst places to live in the world.

The world’s top three cities are all in Central Europe, with the former seat of the Habsburg Empire sitting firmly at the top for two years in a row, according to the 2010 Quality of Living Survey by London-based Mercer, an international consulting company. The lakeside Swiss cities of Zurich and Geneva rank second and third.

In Pictures: Best and worst cities to live in

In the US, the highest ranking entry is Honolulu at No. 31, followed by San Francisco at 32. Singapore (28) is the top-scoring Asian city followed by Tokyo at 40. The best city in the Middle East is Dubai (75); the best in Africa is Port Louis in Mauritius (82).

Baghdad, ranking 221, remains at the bottom of the list, well behind a string of low-ranking African cities.

But Mercer's rankings, and others such as that put out by the Economist Intelligence Unit, fail to truly capture what makes a great city, writes Joel Kotkin in Forbes magazine:

"It seems to me what makes for great cities in history are not measurements of safety, sanitation or homogeneity but economic growth, cultural diversity and social dynamism.... Just think about the great cities of history – ancient Rome, Islamic Baghdad, 19th century London, 20th century New York – or contemporary Los Angeles, Houston, Shanghai and Mumbai.

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