According to a survey weighing 39 different factors, Dublin has ranked 26th in the world for the best quality of life.

The ranking, which is the same position that the city held last year, and one place less than held in 2009, is determined based on factors in ten different categories, including "political and social environment, the economic environment, the socio-cultural environment, health and sanitation, recreation, housing, public services, and schools and education," according to the Irish Times.

Regarding the quality of life overall in European cities, senior researcher Slagin Parakatil said that while the standards of living remain high, "economic turmoil, high levels of unemployment, and lack of confidence in political institutions make their future positions hard to predict."

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Mercer, the company who published the 2011 Quality of Living survey, evaluated 420 cities worldwide between September and November of this year. The results showed that more than half of the top 25 cities were European.

Dublin's rankings for personal safety were significantly higher in a related list, landing the city as the 16th safest and Belfast as 63rd; both cities beat out London which was ranked in 68th place. Factors included in that survey were internal stability, crime levels, law enforcement effectiveness, and international relations.

Other noteworthy cities were Baghdad, last for both quality of life and personal safety; the top contenders for standard of living were Vienna as number one, followed by Zurich, Auckland, Munich, and Dusseldorf and Vancouver sharing the fifth place.