The city of Helsinki (Finland) clinched third place in this year’s eco-city index of the Mercer Quality of Living survey. The ICLEI member city tops the ranking among European cities.

According to the survey, the world’s most ecological city is Calgary (Canada), with Honolulu (United States) in second place. Helsinki shares third place with Canadian capital city Ottawa. Other Nordic capitals also fare well in the survey, with three other ICLEI members cities coming in the top ten, Copenhagen (Denmark) in eighth place and Oslo (Norway) and Stockholm (Sweden), sharing ninth place.

The survey’s eco-ranking of cities is based on water availability and drinkability, waste removal, quality of sewage systems, air pollution and traffic congestion. In overall quality of living, European cities topped the polls as being the best places to live. Vienna (Austria), took the top spot for the second year running, followed by Zurich and Geneva (Switzerland). The survey assesses 221 cities across 39 different factors, which include political stability in the city, crime levels, health, education, sanitation and eco-rankings.

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