Frankfurt Top German city in Survey on Quality of Urban Life

The annual survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting on the quality of urban life worldwide places Frankfurt in fifth place, the highest ranking for a German city. The report evaluates criteria including economic and environmental factors, health, education, transport and safety. The list, which is intended as a guide to life for expatriates rather than for local residents, is topped by Swiss cities Zurich and Geneva. Anti-terrorism measures caused U.S. cities to slip down this year, with time-consuming entry and exit checks resulting from tighter security regarded as detrimental to the quality of life. Iraqi capital Baghdad was bottom of the list of 215 cities.