Revealed: the world’s most liveable cities in 2026

Copenhagen, Denmark, has once again been named the world's most liveable city. It topped the annual Global Liveability Index, beating Vienna and Melbourne. The city earned perfect scores for education, infrastructure, and stability.

Copenhagen is known for its sustainable living and cycle culture. This approach to urban planning, which puts people first, helped it secure the top spot. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) compiles this index. It looks at 173 cities across five areas: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.

Top Cities and Regional Shifts

Switzerland also has cities in the top 10, with Zurich at fifth and Geneva at sixth. Japan features Osaka (seventh) and Tokyo (tenth). Australia has three cities: Melbourne (third), Sydney (fourth), and Adelaide (eighth). Manchester is the highest-ranked UK city at 52nd.

The latest index shows a trend of stagnating liveability scores in Europe. Meanwhile, Asian cities have seen improvements.

"Western Europe is still the strongest region for liveability, but its average score has stagnated in the 2026 index, while Asia’s has risen," the report's authors noted. "There are now nine Asian cities in the top 20, and seven European cities."

Improvements in Healthcare

Even at the bottom of the index, there were some positive changes. Damascus, Syria, remains the lowest-ranked city. However, its healthcare scores have "improved markedly" since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime. Tripoli, Libya, also saw better healthcare scores, though it is still the second-lowest-ranked city.

The Iran war impacted many cities in the Middle East, causing them to drop in the rankings. Despite this, the region showed improvements in some areas, especially healthcare.

Healthcare was a major theme in this year's index. Chinese cities saw significant improvements in healthcare scores due to years of public investment. "As a result, Chinese cities dominate the list of biggest upwards movers this year, led by Fuzhou, an industrial city in the south-east," the authors said. However, political freedom restrictions kept culture and environment scores low in most Chinese cities, limiting further gains.

New York, US, also saw one of the biggest score improvements among all 173 cities. This followed years of falling crime rates and lower risks of terrorist attacks. Still, it remains the third-lowest-ranking US city, behind Detroit and Lexington.

The Most Liveable Cities

1. Copenhagen, Denmark
2. Vienna, Austria
3. Melbourne, Australia
4. Sydney, Australia
5. Zurich, Switzerland
6. Geneva, Switzerland
7. Osaka, Japan
8. Adelaide, Australia
9. Vancouver, Canada
10. Tokyo, Japan

The Least Liveable Cities

1. Damascus, Syria
2. Tripoli, Libya
3. Dhaka, Bangladesh
4. Karachi, Pakistan
5. Algiers, Algeria
6. Lagos, Nigeria
7. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
8. Kyiv, Ukraine
9. Harare, Zimbabwe
10. Tehran, Iran

Cities with the Biggest Improvements

1. Fuzhou, China (rank: 93)
2. Lisbon, Portugal (54)
3. Wuxi, China (106)
4. Nanjing, China (98)
5. Zhuhai, China (105)
6. Qingdao, China (114)
7. Tokyo, Japan (10)
8. New York, US (66)
9. Shenyang, China (84)
10. Dalian, China (101)