Expatriate Geography

As Richard Florida might say, expatriate living is spiky. Foreign Policy's blog notes that the Mercer survey of the best places to live for expats correlate with the most expensive places to live:

All of the top ten most expensive cities in the world, except Reykjavik, make the top fifty. So even if money doesn't buy you happiness, at least it gets you quality of life.

According to the survey, the best places in the United States are (in order of ranking): Honolulu, San Francisco, Boston, DC, Chicago, Portland, NYC, and Seattle. Of interest, Mercer also provides a ranking of "health and sanitation." Pittsburgh is tied for tenth best in the WORLD.