Ankara maintains top position in quality of living survey

Ankara has remained at the top of the list for the past four years. The province was followed by the southern tourism hub of Antalya. Antalya has replaced the central Anatolian province of Eskişehir, which maintained second place in 2009 and 2010.

Turkey's most populous province, İstanbul, came in sixth in the magazine's quality of living list, one step down from its position last year. The magazine takes such criteria as the level of economic development, the number of health care institutions, the variety of educational facilities and a wide network of public transportation into account when deciding on the list. The rankings are based on a point scoring index.

Ankara had 59 points out of 100 on the list, while the southeastern province of Hakkari came in last out of 81 provinces with a poor 23.6 points performance. Other key quality of living determinants were socio-cultural environment, recreation, customer goods, housing and natural environment.

In sub-groups on the list, Ankara ranked first in economic development and education categories. The city was second in health and fourth in cultural and arts activity. Antalya was sixth in economic development and 11th in education category. Eskişehir had 52.2 points on the list and topped the list of cultural and arts activities.