Ranked: 100 Global Cities by Quality of Life and Cost

Ranked: 100 Global Cities by Quality of Life and Cost

What makes a city good value? Low prices alone aren’t enough.

This visualization by Valerii Emelianov compares cost of living with quality of life across 100 global cities using August 2026 data from the Numbeo Quality of Life Index.

The 100 cities shown are plotted using percentile ranks calculated against 306 cities in Numbeo’s database. For quality of life, the visualization removes price-linked components to avoid effectively counting affordability twice, focusing instead on factors including safety and health care, traffic and pollution, and climate.

Where Quality of Life Goes Furthest

The table below shows the 100 cities ranked by quality of life and cost of living, based on Numbeo 2026 data.

City	Quality of Life Percentile	Cost of Living Percentile
Vienna	98	83
Eindhoven	98	73
Split	97	49
Porto	96	41
Tallinn	95	59
Amsterdam	95	93
Valencia	93	43
Dusseldorf	91	80
Prague	89	49
Madrid	88	52
Zurich	88	100
Oslo	87	100
Sydney	85	93
Liverpool	85	70
Geneva	84	100
Abu Dhabi	83	46
Frankfurt	82	78
Vancouver	82	68
Lisbon	81	47
Canberra	80	93
Bursa	79	23
Trieste	77	59
Tel Aviv	77	100
Tokyo	76	46
Melbourne	76	90
Antalya	75	26
Brisbane	75	71
Kaliningrad	74	27
Bratislava	71	50
Singapore	71	98
Nizhny Novgorod	70	24
Curitiba	69	16
Honolulu	68	100
Seoul	67	71
Riga	66	48
Calgary	66	63
Islamabad	65	7
Berlin	65	79
Florianopolis	64	20
Haifa	62	95
Plovdiv	61	30
Dubai	58	55
San Jose	54	96
Varna	54	37
Limassol	53	60
Orlando	53	76
Chiang Mai	53	13
Dallas	52	85
Seattle	50	98
Antwerp	50	74
Lviv	48	12
Montevideo	47	48
Barcelona	45	54
Tashkent	45	11
Miami	43	94
Cleveland	43	62
Gdansk	42	40
Hong Kong	42	89
Yerevan	40	30
Lyon	40	77
Washington DC	39	99
Manchester	38	68
Guangzhou	37	19
Budapest	37	46
Jeddah	36	32
Dublin	35	88
Minsk	33	14
Athens	31	49
San Francisco	30	99
Turin	30	56
Tbilisi	29	23
Brussels	28	81
Buenos Aires	27	42
London	25	96
Paris	25	91
Chisinau	24	24
Baku	24	14
Monterrey	24	41
Milan	23	87
Durban	23	20
Moscow	22	37
Belgrade	22	39
Houston	22	58
San Juan	21	70
New York	20	100
Quito	19	16
Las Vegas	19	76
St. Petersburg	17	17
Bucharest	17	34
Tunis	15	12
Chicago	15	86
Astana	15	25
Santiago	12	30
Hyderabad	11	4
Los Angeles	10	95
Naples	7	53
Tirana	6	39
Dnipro	6	10
Detroit	5	66
Yekaterinburg	2	22

Europe dominates the upper half of the chart. Split sits in the 97th percentile for quality of life but only the 49th for cost. Porto ranks in the 96th percentile for quality of life versus the 41st for cost, while Valencia ranks 93rd versus 43rd.

Why European Cities Stand Out

Of the 18 cities in the best-value quadrant, European cities including Porto, Split, Valencia, Prague, Lisbon, Bratislava, Riga, and Varna feature prominently. This aligns with broader quality-of-life rankings, where European countries frequently perform strongly.

One reason is that quality of life reflects more than income. Health care access, public transportation, compact urban design, and safety can support day-to-day living without requiring U.S.-level household spending. Europe can also be cheaper than the U.S. depending on location, particularly for health care and some everyday expenses.

That advantage is not universal. Zurich and Oslo both sit at the 100th percentile for cost, while Geneva is close behind. These cities offer high quality of life, but at premium prices.

America’s Biggest Cities Struggle on Value

The U.S. shows almost the opposite pattern in the lower-right portion of the chart. New York ranks in the 100th percentile for cost of living but just the 20th for quality of life, while Los Angeles ranks in the 95th percentile for cost and the 10th for quality of life.

Detroit records the lowest quality-of-life percentile among the 100 cities shown, at 5. Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Houston also fall into the bad-value quadrant.

This helps explain why geography can matter enormously when estimating how much money is needed to live comfortably: higher salaries don’t necessarily translate into greater purchasing power once housing and other local expenses are considered.

Meanwhile, cities across the Asia-Pacific show a wider range. Tokyo, Seoul, Brisbane, Singapore, and Sydney pair relatively high costs with above-median quality of life, while lower-cost cities such as Chiang Mai and Islamabad sit on the chart’s best-value side.

Numbeo’s index is based on user-contributed data, however, meaning these rankings are better viewed as comparative indicators than definitive judgments about where life is “best.”

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To explore how perceptions of living standards are shifting over time, see How Quality of Life Has Changed in 30 Countries, According to Citizens on the Voronoi app.

• Source: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/100-global-cities-by-quality-of-life-and-cost/