(CNN) – The city of Freud, Klimt and the famed Spanish riding school is top of the pops when it comes to the world’s best cities to live in, according to a new survey.
For the third successive year, Vienna was ranked number one as European cities claimed more than half of the top 25 positions in Mercer's 2011 Quality of Living index, which awards points for a range of criteria, including political and economic stability, culture, health and sanitation, quality of schools, public services and housing.
Zurich in neighboring Switzerland came in second, while New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, was third in the list of 221 cities worldwide.
Top 10 (quality of life):
1. Vienna (Austria)
2. Zurich (Switzerland)
3. Auckland (New Zealand)
4. Munich (Germany)
5. Dusseldorf (Germany)
6. Vancouver (Canada)
7. Frankfurt (Germany)
8. Geneva (Switzerland)
9. Bern (Switzerland)
10. Copenhagen (Denmark)
