Honolulu has the best quality of living of any U.S. city, according to a ranking done to help multi-national companies placing employees abroad.

Hawai'i's capitol city ranked 31st of 221 cities worldwide in terms of quality of life in the ranking done by management consulting company Mercer. The researchers looked at a variety of factors including political stability, personal freedom, schoolss, recreation, consumer goods and housing.

Honolulu placed it ahead of San Francisco (32), Boston (37) and Chicago and Washington (tied at 45) in the U.S.

New York came in at 49, while Philadelphia and Dallas at 55 and 61 respectively.

Honolulu also scored highly in a "eco-ranking" component that scored cities on water and air quality, waste removal, sewage system quality and traffic congestion. It ranked No. 2 in this aspect, behind Calgary.

The overall ranking placed Vienna as being the top city in the world for quality of living. Baghdad occupied the last place on the list.