Singapore climbed 26 in this year’s Quality of Living survey by management consultancy Mercer. This result was an improvement of six places from last year and also makes it the top city in Asia. In a separate survey for the best city infrastructure, it came out tops too.

According to Mercer, this survey is meant to be a guide for to help government and companies decide where to place employees on international assignments. It is based on 39 quality of life 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)
• Health and sanitation (medical supplies and services, infectious diseases, sewage, waste disposal, air pollution, etc)
• Schools and education (standard and availability of international 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 (housing, household appliances, furniture, maintenance services, etc)
• Natural environment (climate, record of natural disasters)

It’ll be interesting to see the specifics of how Singapore fared if we can get hold of the survey. The result is not a surprise, as Prof Ooi Giok Ling tells us Singapore is planned for business. And as further proof, not only has Singapore’s infrastructure come out tops, the World Bank ranks this city’s regulation over business as the best too.