Switzerland's financial capital, Zurich, has beaten Copenhagen to take top place in an annual index of the world's top 25 most livable cities. In its third annual quality of life index, London-based global affairs magazine Monocle found that the Swiss city was the number one urban location to call home, pushing last year's winner Copenhagen into second place. Tokyo came in third place while Munich - which topped the first index in 2007 - fell to fourth position, followed by Helsinki. Rounding out the top 10 were Stockholm, Vienna, Paris, Melbourne and Berlin. Monocle editor-in-chief Tyler Brule said it was a tight race, and admitted Zurich did not jump ahead for its nightlife. He said the index was based on a number of measures, including investment in public transport, public safety, health, education, and the number of cinema screens in a city. “We also look at the relationship a city has with its small and medium-size enterprises and Zurich scores incredibly high across all of those areas,” he said. However in a list of “most livable cities” by the Economist magazine's Intelligence Unit, Vancouver takes top slot with Zurich coming in ninth.
