City's Quality Of Living Rank Drops

New York City is losing ground to other cities around the world according to a new annual ranking based on quality of living standards.

The city came in 49th place in the survey conducted by a global consulting and investment firm, Mercer, dropping from 48th in 2007 and 46th in 2006.

RELATED: Quality of Living global city rankings – Mercer survey.

Zurich was listed as the international city with the highest quality of living, followed by Vienna, Geneva, and Vancouver. The top-ranking American city is Honolulu, which came in at 28th place, followed by San Francisco, in 29th place. Boston is ranked 37th, and Chicago and Washington, D.C., tied for 44th place.

Baghdad was listed as the city with the lowest quality of living.

Mayor Bloomberg, when asked about the survey at a press conference in Lower Manhattan yesterday morning, argued that there is no other place in the world like New York.

"This is the greatest place to live. This is why tourism is up 9% here, foreign tourism, while it's down in the rest of the country. People are moving here and staying here in ways they never have before," he said. "It depends what standard. If the standard is, do we have hot weather in the winter, we would lose that. If the standard is, do you have a billion acres per person so you can ride a horse, we will not compete in that case. If the standard is, where do you want to raise your kids, get medical care, get an education, understand the world, and compete in the biggest pond in the world, New York's the place for you."

The study takes into account 39 quality of living factors.