Vienna has the best standard of living in the world, according to business services firm Mercer’s 2011 Quality of Living Survey.

European cities represent over half the cities in the top 25 in the ranking, but Britain is not among these. London has the highest rank of any UK city, at 38, closely followed by Birmingham (52), Aberdeen (54) and Glasgow (56).

The survey also provides a personal safety ranking, topped by Luxembourg, with Bern, Helsinki and Zurich in a tie for 2nd place.

Aberdeen and Glasgow share 44th place in the safety rankings, with Birmingham at 53 and Belfast at 63, ahead of 68th-placed London.

Canadian cities dominate the higher end of the personal safety and quality of living ranking for the Americas, while the Asia Pacific region sees Australian and New Zealand cities claim top spots although Singapore bucks the trend as the 8th-safest City globally.

In the Middle East and Africa region, Dubai and Abu Dhabi come top in the standard of living ranking, ahead of Port Louis, Mauritius and Cape Town, while Abu Dhabi and Muscat, Oman are the safest cities.

Baghdad sits rock bottom at 221st in both the quality of living and personal safety rankings.

Slagin Parakatil, senior researcher at Mercer, says: “Companies need to keep on top of current developments to ensure that their compensation packages remain competitive and continue to motivate expatriate employees.

“That means reviewing major events, such as social unrest, economic turmoil or natural disasters and their impact on the success of overseas placements.”