Montreal ranked fourth in North America, 23rd in world for quality-of-living

A view of the Montreal skyline in 2002. (Paul Chiasson / CP)

Montreal has the fourth-best quality of living of any North American city, and the 23rd best in the world, according to a new international survey of cities.

The Mercer Quality of Living Report, released Tuesday, placed four Canadian cities at the top of its list of North American cities.

Vancouver took top spot in North America, Ottawa second, Toronto third and Montreal fourth, while San Francisco took fifth.

The five lowest ranked in North America were listed as Miami, (65th globally) Houston, (66), St. Louis, (67), Detroit, (70), and Mexico City (122).

The study evaluated consumer goods, economic environment, housing, medical and health considerations, political and social environment, public services and transport, recreation and socio-cultural environment.

If you're thinking about moving south, the top cities in Central and South America were: Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Mentevideo, Uruguay, Buenos Aires, Argentina and Santiago, Chile.

The lowest-ranked cities in that region were: Managua, Nicagarua, (170) San Salvador, El Salvador, (175) Caracas, Venezuela, (176), Tegucigalpa, Honduras (181) and Port-au-Prince, Haiti (221).

The top-ranked cities in the world were listed as Vienna, Zurich, Auckland, Munich and Vancouver.

The lowest-ranked cities in the world were Brazzaville, Congo, (218), Sana’a, Yemen Arab Republic, (219) N’Djamenia,Chad, (220) Bangui, Central African Republic, (222) and Baghdad, Iraq (223).

The methodology used to evaluate the cities was not explained. Those seeking to read the entire study have to shell out $499 for a copy, according to a note on the company's website.