Western European cities dominated Mercer's 2019 Quality of Living report comparing the quality of life in cities around the world, while Tehran ranked near the bottom, at 199 out of 231 cities surveyed.

For the tenth year in a row, the Austrian capital, Vienna, held its spot as the number one city in terms of quality of life. Zurich, in Switzerland ranked second, followed by Vancouver, Canada, Munich, Germany, and Aukland, New Zealand.

Tehran took 199th place in the ranking, ahead of cities like Baghdad in Iraq, Tripoli in Libya, Damascus in Syria, Dushanbe in Tajikistan, and Port Au Prince in Haiti.

Dubai (74) and Abu Dhabi (78) in the United Arab Emirates, Tel Aviv (104) in Israel, and Muscat (105) in Oman were among the cities in the Middle East that were ranked higher than Tehran.

Mercer has been evaluating local living conditions in cities across the world for the past 21 years. It weighs 39 different factors, including housing, recreation, consumer goods availability, political and social environment, school and education, as well as medical and health considerations.

Dubai in 74th place continued to rank highest for the quality of living in the Middle East, closely followed by Abu Dhabi (78). The Middle East’s safest cities are Dubai also (73) and Abu Dhabi (73). Damascus (231) is the least safe city, both in the Middle East and the world.

A decline in the crime rate and the lack of terrorist incidents over the last twelve months in Istanbul (130) in Turkey helped it to rise four places from last year.