Ranked: 100 Global Cities by Quality of Life and Cost
Key Takeaways:
- 18 of the 100 cities shown combine below-median costs with above-median quality of life, placing them in the chart’s “best value” quadrant.
- European cities feature prominently among the strongest-value locations, including Split, Porto, Valencia, Prague, Lisbon, and Riga.
- Several major U.S. cities fall into the “bad value” quadrant, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Houston.
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.