Winny Wang/ Shanghai Daily news

Living quality in Shanghai ranked the 100th among the 215 cities surveyed by Mercer Human Resource Consulting. Beijing was behind Shanghai in 116th place.

The analysis is based on an evaluation of 39 quality of life criteria for each city including political, social, economic and environmental factors, personal safety and health, education, transport and other public services.

Zurich, Geneva, Vienna, Vancouver, and Auckland remained the top scoring cities on the ranking.

Hong Kong dropped two places to 70 this year, failing to compete with its Asian rivals such as Singapore (34) and Tokyo (35).

War-struck Baghdad was at the bottom of the ranking.

A senior researcher of the company said Japan and Singapore have complete infrastructure, a stable polity and economy, which enable them to be the best cities to live in Asia.

Cities in the Chinese mainland have developed quickly but their services in public transport, telecommunication and aviation need to be improved and Hong Kong's air pollution problem is serious, the researcher said.