The Quality of Living index is based on several criteria used to judge whether an expatriate is entitled to a hardship allowance. A city with a high Quality of Living index is a safe and stable one, but it may be lacking the dynamic je ne sais quoi that makes people want to live in world-renowned cities such as Paris, Tokyo, London or New York. Sometimes you need a little spice to make a city exciting. But that "spice" may also give a city a lower ranking.

What makes one person's quality of life better or worse cannot be quantified in an objective index. Therefore, Mercer's Quality of Living report reflects only the tangible aspects of living in a city on expatriate assignments, and leaves the question of the quality of one's life to those living it!

While that's not the criteria we used when we fell in love with San Francisco (ours were more along the lines of "There are so many bars within walking distance!" and "It's so far from Indiana!"), we decided to begrudgingly accept these parameters when we saw that San Francisco is the second-highest ranked American city, right behind Honolulu! That's right, we're number 28, baby! No expat hardship allowance for you!

Shanghaiist compares the other -ists and their rankings, which has us scratching our head in dismay over the plight of Houston, the bottom-ranked American city. We read Houstonist every day, and the city sounds perfectly nice to us! What gives?

Image of Holland Lop rabbit Fab Rubix, who took 28th place in his division at the 2005 H.L.R.S.C. National Convention. 28th Place RULES!