Riyadh provides the best job opportunities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), according to a study.

Doha came second, followed by Jeddah, said the YouGov study carried out with Middle East jobsite Bayt.com.

Almost half of respondents said the availability of jobs in Riyadh and Doha is either good or excellent.

Doha is considered to have the most competitive salaries, according to 44 percent of respondents.

Respondents said Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Manama and Muscat were the top Middle East cities to live in, according to the survey.

Residents of Dubai (19 percent), Manama (15 percent) and Sharjah (13 percent) appear to be positive about the ease of setting up a new business.

However, residents of other cities like Amman, Marrakech and Cairo have a more negative outlook.

The majority of residents in the MENA region consider finding money to set up a new business a challenge.

Residents of Abu Dhabi (25 percent), Dubai (20 percent) and Sharjah (18 percent) claim their cities are excellent when it comes to the willingness to accept new ideas and concepts.

End of service benefits are seen as being the best in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) cities, especially Sharjah (44 percent), Abu Dhabi (42 percent), Manama (42 percent) and Kuwait City (41 percent), the survey said.

The city believed to have the lowest air pollution is Muscat, according to 70 percent of the city’s residents, followed by Abu Dhabi (61 percent).

Residents ranked Dubai the highest in terms of quality of life, with 73 percent ranking their lifestyle as either good or excellent, followed by Abu Dhabi.

Forty-four percent of respondents from Doha claimed their city provides good or excellent salaries, followed by Abu Dhabi (41 percent), Riyadh (40 percent) and Dubai (38 percent).

Availability of affordable housing is a region-wide issue, especially in Algiers where 73 percent think it is bad or poor.