Newsflash! Buenos Aires comes in only #2 behind Montevideo, Uruguay for "quality of living" in Latin American countries according to the Mercer Quality of Living Report for 2006. Overall the city came in #78 out of 215 cities, just a few spots behind the cities of Hong Kong and Prague.
PRNewswire reports that the factors used to determine the report are the following:
Mercer's study is based on detailed assessments and evaluations of 39 key quality of living determinants, grouped in the following categories:
-- Political and social environment (political stability, crime, law enforcement, etc)
-- Economic environment (currency exchange regulations, banking services, etc)
-- Socio-cultural environment (censorship, limitations on personal freedom, etc)
-- Medical and health considerations (medical supplies and services, infectious diseases, sewage, waste disposal, air pollution, etc)
-- Schools and education (standard and availability of schools, etc)
-- Public services and transportation (electricity, water, public transport, traffic congestion, etc)
-- Recreation (restaurants, theatres, cinemas, sports and leisure, etc)
-- Consumer goods (availability of food/daily consumption items, cars, etc)
-- Housing
-- Natural environment (climate, record of natural disasters)
The full list of cities and their rankings is available here.
I will say from personal experience of comparing Miami to Buenos Aires, I think in many factors Buenos Aires comes out well ahead.
The temperate climate allows you to enjoy the outdoors all year round rather than being stuck sprinting from house to car to mall half of the year. A caveat if you love plants - get ready because it's possible to grow everything from lemons to lavender to maples to orchids.
Housing is still affordable, although it is going up as the city becomes a hot expat haven.
Natural disasters...I came from one of the hot seats in Miami...the worst I've seen so far in Buenos Aires is a freak tornado and strong winds.
Medical care is excellent as I've talked about over and over. Private health insurance is affordable and the quality of the doctors and technology is top notch. Private health insurance in Miami was full of copayments, deductibles and insurance companies telling you, "gee I'm sorry but that's not covered either." Definately not the best place any longer for retirees when it comes to health insurance but then again, are there many places in the U.S. where it's affordable for private health care insurance for retirees or families? Sorry but this is one of my pet peeves lately being that I'm pregnant.
Transportation is easy to access, gets you around the city and to the suburbs, and is very affordable. In Miami, transportation was a joke. Accessing very little of the city and making the car a necessity to grocery stop, get to your job, or visit family.
Recreation is everywhere from outdoor activities to world class museums to music to restaurants. Oh, and if you have kids get ready because your kids can take almost any type of lesson from music to language to art and more.
Private schools are also excellent and if you are willing to send your kids to a bilingual school it will be incredibly affordable, particularly if you're living on dollars or euros. Miami schools were not very great, even many of the private schools.
Crime exists but then again it does in any big city in the world. In Miami people worried about home invasions, getting robbed at the mall, and getting their cars stolen.
No it's not perfect here either, but I'm willing to take the bad with the good because the good is pretty ok.
Any of my readers care to comment on how they feel their cities might be better or worse than Buenos Aires?
Hola.
Buenos Aires ha sido siempre muy bien considerada segun Standard y calidad de vida. Por ejemplo son muy importantes los index de las Naciones Unidas referidos a Desarrollo Humano ( HD, by UN ), en donde Argentina, ocupa desde hace años el primer lugar en LA. ( Y muy cerca de grandes paises de Europa ).
EL índice MERCER es más reciente, y da también parámetros significativos al respecto.
Saludo cordial !
Posted by: Dalton | Sunday, June 25, 2006 at 05:49 AM
Having also lived in Miami, I definitely agree that the quality of living in Buenos Aires is much better.
Posted by: Jeff | Saturday, June 24, 2006 at 02:00 PM