Explore The Happiest Cities For Living And Travel, Per New Study
What makes a city truly happy? The world's happiest cities excel in creating environments where residents thrive and visitors are enchanted.
A good city undoubtedly offers an affordable lifestyle for its residents, in terms of accessible housing and good jobs, but it's also a lot more. A city that makes its residents happy provides for its citizens in terms of its services and protects its people in environmental, economic, and social senses. A good city for a five-year-old with great playgrounds is different for a working adult who may want accessible and efficient public transport to get home from work and, yet again, for a retiree. The world's happiest cities can do all this and more. Plus, with excellent services and happy residents, they're great places to visit as travelers.
The Institute for Quality of Life measures the world's happiest cities under a project organised by the Happy City Hub. The project researches various aspects of quality of life, centered around six major themes—citizens, governance, environment, economy, health, and mobility. Its tagline is from Plato, 'This City is what it is because our citizens are what they are.'
Within these themes, the project studies many health indicators, such as nutrition and mental health. In the economy, it looks at factors such as unemployment, cost of living, earnings, GDP, and maternity and paternity leave allowances. It studies indicators such as pollution, recycling, and green spaces in the environment. In governance, data such as voting participation and accessibility of e-payments and e-services are analyzed. For mobility, it looks at public transport networks and road traffic accidents. And for citizens, it assesses educational factors, access to affordable housing, access to culture, and inclusive services such as support for older people or people with disabilities. Indeed, all the things about a city that, when combined, make its residents very happy. As the project says, "There is no single perfect place to live that guarantees happiness for all its residents," but there are factors that make a difference.
The project has identified three different levels of cities globally. There are 31 gold standard cities, where cities track their progress against clear benchmarks. These cities have measurable indicators, and the figures allow meaningful comparisons with other places around the world, and the impact of their social policies is undeniably visible.
Many of these 31 gold cities are some of the most visited cities in the world. Think Paris, Berlin, New York, Barcelona, Dublin, and London. These cities were recently featured as some of the smartest cities in the world on the IESE Cities in Motion Index 2025, and cities with the best work-life balance, like Dublin, Brussels, and Copenhagen.
However, many of these 31 countries are in Northern Europe and regularly appear on indexes of countries with a high self-reported happiness level by their residents. The UN's World's Happiest Countries in 2025 appear on this list in some of its cities. Finland is first on that list, and Helsinki is in 14th place. Denmark is the second-highest happiest country, and Copenhagen topped the world's happiest cities. Aarhus in Denmark is in 4th place, Reykjavik in Iceland is in 27th place, Stockholm in Sweden is in 7th place, and Rotterdam in the Netherlands is in 10th place.
These places feature in many of the best places to visit in 2024 or 2025. Zurich, the second happiest city on the list, is loved for its progressive culture, with a dynamic music and art scene and architectural landmarks by Le Corbusier and Santiago Calatrava.
Antwerp, at number four, is rapidly becoming what industry insiders call a 'destination dupe' for Paris; places that travelers head to to avoid the overcrowding of summer crowds and because it offers many of Paris' charms—although Paris is also 13th on the list. France remains the most visited country in the world.
Berlin, number 16 on the happiest cities in the world, was named by Time Out as one of the 50 Best Cities for its famed nightlife, plethora of positive liveability aspects, and thriving organic wine and restaurant scene.
The world's happiest cities are more than just places to live—they're destinations that inspire and delight travelers. With their focus on well-being, sustainability, and inclusivity, these cities set the standard for urban happiness and make them unforgettable travel destinations.
This is the 6th edition of the Happy City Index, with these cities ranked as the 200 happiest cities in the world:
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