mainland european cities are the most desirable places to work despite having some of the highest levels of tax in the world, according to a quality of living survey published today.
thirteen of the top 20 cities in which to live and work are in europe, including munich, copenhagen, vienna, brussels, frankfurt, stockholm and berlin, according to research by consultancy firm mercer.
the survey studied factors including health services, political stability, traffic congestion, crime, media censorship, pollution, mail services, and even the variety and quality of restaurants and theatre. it does not factor in the cost of living.
london, which is ranked 38th, scores well for public services, recreation and telecommunications, but is let down by security concerns and pollution. glasgow and birmingham are the next most desirable british cities, jointly ranked 56th.
the mercer findings, designed to help governments and companies put a financial value on moving workers from one country to another, come amid criticism from uk business leaders of the government's plans to introduce a 50p tax rate for the country's highest earners.
among the super-rich quick to criticise the new tax band have been sir richard branson, former trade minister lord jones, bookstore entrepreneur tim waterstone, peter hargreaves, founder of hargreaves lansdown, hedge fund veteran stanley fink and entrepreneur hugh osmond.
osmond, whose business interests have ranged from pizzaexpress to pearl insurance group, said: "a lot of people will be off. i think it's highly unlikely that i will continue to have the uk as my country of residence."
but slagin parakatil, who compiled the research for mercer, said tax changes in the uk were unlikely to alter the strategies of multinational companies in deciding where to deploy staff. "i don't think tax would be an issue. if you need to send someone, you will definitely send someone, no matter whether the tax regime is high or not."
beyond europe, tops draws were vancouver, ottawa and toronto, auckland, wellington, sydney and melbourne, where tax rates have been broadly comparable with britain's in recent years.
the most desirable us cities are honolulu, san francisco and boston, ranked 29th, 30th and 35th respectively.
top of the quality of life rankings is vienna, which pushed last year's lead city, zurich, into second spot. at the other end of the 215-city league table, 16 of the bottom 20 are to be found in africa. among them are brazzaville, khartoum and kinshasa.
• this article was amended on tuesday 28 april 2009. we referred to sana'a as an african city. it is the capital of yemen in southwest asia. this has been corrected.
据今天公布的一项生活质量调查显示，欧洲大陆的一些城市尽管有些属于世界上税赋最重的地方，但仍排名最理想的工作地区。
根据咨询机构美世公司的这项最新研究，全球前20名最佳生活及工作的城市中有十三个落户欧洲，包括慕尼黑、哥本哈根、维也纳、布鲁塞尔、法兰克福、斯德哥尔摩以及柏林。
这项调查研究考虑的因素包括医疗服务水平、政治稳定程度、交通挤塞状况、犯罪率、媒体审查程度、污染情况、邮件服务水平、乃至餐馆和剧院的多样化和质量水平。这一调查并不将生活费用考虑在内。
伦敦排名第38位，在公共服务，娱乐和电讯方面得分较高，但被安全问题和污染问题所拖累。格拉斯哥和伯明翰这两个城市是英国位列第二的理想城市，同列第56名。
美世调查旨在帮助各国政府和公司在国家间派遣调动员工时有个财务考虑的依据。这次调查结果“呱呱落地”，正值英国商界领袖们对政府推出高收入阶层50%所得税计划群起批评之时。
迅速做出批评新税法反应的超级富豪中，有理查德·布兰森爵士、前贸易部长琼斯勋爵、图书销售业企业家蒂姆·沃特斯通、hargreaves lansdown创始人彼得·哈格里夫斯、对冲基金资深人士史丹利·芬克以及企业家休·奥斯蒙德。
奥斯蒙德的商业兴趣涵盖比萨速递公司至珍珠保险集团，他说：“很多人将离开英国。我也不大可能继续居住在英国。”
但是美世这份调查报告的编辑slagin parakatil则认为，英国税制改革不可能改变跨国公司决定在何处部署员工时的策略。“我不认为税赋会是一个问题。如果你需要派遣人员去某地，你一定会执行，不管那里税赋是高或低。”
除欧洲城市之外，其他最吸引人的城市包括温哥华、渥太华和多伦多、奥克兰、惠灵顿、悉尼以及墨尔本，这些城市在最近几年税率一直与英国大致相若。
最理想的美国城市有檀香山、旧金山和波士顿，分别排列第29名、第30和第35名。
生活质量排名第一的是维也纳，它将去年的最佳城市苏黎世挤落到第二位去了。在这个215座城市排名表的尾端，最后20名中有16座城市位于非洲。其中有布拉柴维尔、喀土穆以及金沙萨。
• 本文修正于2009年4月28日(星期二)。我们曾报道萨那为非洲的一座城市。它应是西南亚国家也门的首都。此错已得到修正。