Dublin has been ranked 35th in a "quality-of-life" survey of 215 capital cities. The city came tenth in the survey of European cities.
The survey, by human resource consultants Mercer, was based on the evaluation of 39 factors including political stability, health services, transport and recreational facilities.
Zurich had the best quality of life of the 215 cities, followed by Vancouver and Vienna, Sydney and Geneva.
The city estimated to have the worst quality of life was Brazzaville in Congo, followed closely by Bangui in the Central African Republic and Khartoum in Sudan.
Another Congo city, Pointe Noire, was the fourth least appealing city, while Baghdad was the fifth lowest city on the table.
The annual survey is conducted by Mercer for governments and companies trying to determine allowances for staff transferred abroad.
Dublin's ranking remained unchanged from last year's survey. The quality of life in Dublin was estimated to be better than in cities such as London, New York, Boston and Rome.
As with previous years, cities in Europe, Australia and New Zealand dominated the top of the table, while African countries scored lowest.
Despite the September 11th attacks, there was no significant decline in the overall quality of life in the US cities surveyed.
New York, Washington and Boston were all ranked at 41 in the report, the same ranking as in 2001. However, the survey noted that the ease of entry and exit from the US had deteriorated.
San Francisco was deemed to be the best US city, coming 18th in the survey.
Dublin scored highly on its availability of high quality consumer goods and its socio-cultural environment. It was placed 45th in the environmental rankings. Mexico City was the worst performing city on environmental criteria, while Calgary in Canada topped the poll.
The survey noted the congested traffic in Dublin but said there was a comprehensive public transport system in place.
