Supply Chain

The Healthiest Places In The World

April 7, 2007

I work in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, and live in one of the outlying suburbs. If ever there was a town that could use a little boost in civic pride, Cleveland is that town, so I'm pleased to see that according to the Mercer 2007 Worldwide Quality of Living Survey, Cleveland ranks at # 8 out of all U.S. cities for health and sanitation. The top city worldwide is Calgary, followed closely by Honolulu, the healthiest city in the United States. Cleveland's worldwide healthiness rank is # 37.

According to Mercer Human Resource Consulting, which developed the rankings, "healthiness" refers to "the quality and availability of hospital and medical supplies, and levels of air pollution and infectious diseases. The efficiency of waste removal and sewage systems, water potability and the presence of harmful animals and insects are also taken into account." The survey, according to Mercer, was developed to help governments and major companies place their employees on international assignments.

"As companies expand operations around the world, they consider the quality of life in several ways first, they recognize any diminution in quality of life that their cross-border employees may experience and factor that into their compensation packages," explains Rebecca Powers, a principal in Mercer's San Francisco office. "Moreover, as the workforce becomes more globally mobile, companies that want to attract the most sought after and highly skilled workers may gravitate to those locations where the quality of life is highest."

In terms of overall quality of living which Mercer defines as political, social, economic and environmental factors, personal safety and health, education, transportation and other public services Cleveland slips a bit down the list of U.S. cities to # 13 (# 59 worldwide), with Honolulu still at # 1 in the U.S., but # 27 worldwide. Zurich, Switzerland, has the distinction of having the best overall quality of living in the world, floolwed closely by its sister city, Geneva.

Click here to see the complete rankings.

About the Author

Dave Blanchard Blog | Senior Editor

Focus: Supply Chain

Email: [email protected]

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Call: 216-931-9794

Contributing Editor Dave Blanchard provides the IndustryWeek audience his expertise in lean supply chain, reporting on topics from logistics, procurement and inventory management to warehousing and distribution. He also specializes in business finance news and analysis, writing on such topics as corporate finance and tax, cost management, governance, risk and compliance, and budgeting and reporting.

Dave is also the chief editor of Penton Media’s Business Finance and editorial director of Material Handling & Logistics.

With over 25 years of experience, Dave literally wrote the book on supply chain management, Supply Chain Management Best Practices (John Wiley & Sons, 2010), and is a frequent speaker at industry events. Dave is an award-winning journalist and has been twice named one of the nation’s top columnists by the American Society of Business Publications Editors.

Dave received his B.A. in English from Northern Illinois University, and was a high school teacher prior to his joining the publishing industry. He is married and has two daughters.