Some cities are beyond compare – our liveability index spotlights 10 places doing things differently
When I was living in Naples for a short while, I had a friend, Antonio, who would let out a scornful “pah” every time I asked him to name the best example of a particular thing in the city: the best pizza, the best coffee, the best art gallery. He would retort that “you Anglo-Saxons” are obsessed with ranking things and that reflects how we see the world: in purely competitive, hierarchical terms. The implicit corollary was that Italians focused a little more on living in the moment and had a richer, more spiritual culture as a result.
I’m not so sure that Antonio’s Law, as this theory might be called, is particularly watertight – plenty of things can quite objectively be judged better than others – but I have thought about it every time that I’ve begun the process of putting together Monocle’s annual Quality of Life Survey. The 18th iteration features in our July/August 2025 issue, out today. And so, at the risk of incurring yet another “pah”, how does one rank a thing so multifaceted and protean as a city?
The index began as an antidote to the bloodless, data-driven liveability indexes then proliferating (this is the late 2000s we’re talking about). Tyler and Andrew’s contention was that cities weren’t a collection of statistics but living, breathing things. As such, they should be judged not just on GDP per capita and ambulance-waiting times but on aesthetic merit and whether or not you can have a good night out during the week.
Of course, these qualitative and quantitative measures produced a lot of data that had to be parsed and then melded into a sort of coefficient. This endeavour rewarded a particular kind of city, usually one with a population of around two million, blessed by nature and socioeconomics and, most often, Mitteleuropean. Places such as Geneva and Munich are lovely, liveable cities but this year we wanted to do something a little different. Rather than create a top-20 ranking of the world’s best overall metropolises, we have decided to award 10 cities across just as many categories, including one all-rounder. We considered healthcare, green spaces, security, transport, cleanliness, conviviality, nightlife, economic dynamism and housing – but spotlighting these criteria has allowed one or two lesser-exalted locales to sing. I hope that you enjoy reading it. If you have any questions about our method (or, as you might see it, our madness) then please do get in touch.
For our full line-up, including the city that offers the most favourable work/life balance, the locals that are never dull and the most convivial capital, click here.
