Copenhagen Retains Title as World's Most Livable City for 2026

The Economist Intelligence Unit named Copenhagen, Denmark, the world's most livable city for 2026, marking the second consecutive year the city has held the top spot. Copenhagen earned an overall score of 98 out of 100, achieving perfect marks in stability, education, and infrastructure. Vienna, Austria, followed in second place, with Melbourne, Sydney, and Zurich rounding out the top five.

The index evaluated 173 cities across five categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. While every city in the top 10 earned a perfect score for education, regional trends diverged. Asia emerged as the most improved region due to healthcare investments in Chinese cities, particularly Fuzhou. In contrast, stability scores fell across the Middle East because of the Iran war, leading to significant drops for Kuwait City and Muscat. Damascus, Syria, remains the least livable city globally.

North American representation in the top 10 was limited to Vancouver, Canada, while Honolulu was the highest-ranked U.S. city at number 25. New York City did see an improvement in its stability ranking, attributed to falling crime rates. Analysis indicates that the global average livability score remained stable as healthcare gains in Asia offset stability declines in the Middle East.