The top 10 happiest cities are all in Europe and Asia, with seven and three cities, respectively, according to the latest Happy City Index – an annual ranking of 200 global cities for 2025.
Denmark netted the top spot with Copenhagen, the only city to score more than 1,000 points overall, and was the only country with more than one entry in the top 10, with Aarhus coming in fourth at a respectable 958 points.
Singapore took the highest spot for an Asian city, the city-state coming in third with 979 points, joined by Seoul (6th) and Taipei (8th). Expanding out to all the Gold Cities (those in top 31), North America makes three appearances – Vancouver (11th), New York City (17th) and Minneapolis (30th) – and Oceania appears twice – Auckland (28th) and Adelaide (29th), with several more cities added in the silver and bronze categories.
South America doesn’t make an appearance until Buenos Aires (74th), Tel Aviv (100th) is the sole Middle Eastern city, and not a single African city appears anywhere in the 200-city ranking. The United States has the most cities at 18, followed by China (17), Germany (11), Belgium (10), and Australia (9).
Each city receives a score in six categories – citizens, governance, environment, economy, health and mobility – and their cumulative score determines where they fall in the rankings. The top 31, with scores from 1,039 (Copenhagen) to 842 (London), are considered Gold Cities, while those ranked 32 to 100 are Silver Cities.
Leuven, Belgium, tops the silver list at 840 points, which is capped off by Tel Aviv, Israel, with 715. Bronze Cities range from 101 (Jonkoping, Sweden, 713) to 200 (Pula, Croatia, 548). Many cities in one group may outperform cities in the group above them in particular areas, scoring high in mobility or environment, but lower scores elsewhere land them further down the list.
Vancouver, Canada, for example, is ranked 11th overall but earned the top score in environment at 222, only Adelaide (29) and Paris (13) joining it in cracking 200, scoring 217 and 207, respectively. Environmental scores hinge on practices that create a healthy environment for residents, ranging from renewable energy and energy efficiency to waste management and recycling, to development of parks and protected areas that integrate city life with nature.
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Mobility relies on the quality, safety and reliability of transport infrastructure, with the highest-ranking cities making it a breeze to get around. London (31) shines in this category, scoring 133, with only Taipei (8) and Barcelona (22) coming close to matching it, scoring 131 and 130, respectively. A mobility score of 110 helped Lubeck, Germany (163) make up for its abysmal score of just 5 in environment, one of only two cities to receive a single-digit score on that measure.
Health scores reflect living conditions, public health and access to care, as well as overall well-being of residents. Cities in the Netherlands dominate in this category, with all five Dutch cities on the list scoring 170 or higher. Linz, Austria (47) just managed to edge out the top spot with a score of 177, beating out Rotterdam (10) and Eindhoven (50) by a single point. Munich (9) tied with the two Dutch cities at 176.
Denmark dominated the citizen category, which focuses on social policies like education and public services, as well as inclusivity, opportunity and overall quality of life. Roskilde (26) topped the list with 273 points with fellow Danish city Aalborg (15) taking third with 267, Stockholm, Sweden (7) filling in the number two spot with 270. Seoul (6) came in fourth with Tokyo (42) at ninth, the only non-European cities in the top 10 for this measure.
As one might expect, the top cities for happiness were also the top in economic performance, which combines traditional metrics like GDP and economic growth with costing of living and data that reflects innovation, like the number of new businesses and new patents registered.
Copenhagen (1) scored the highest in economy at 185, followed by Zurich (2) and Singapore (3), which tied with scores of 174. The only other cities to top 160 in economy are the US cities of Minneapolis (30) and Nashville (96), netting scores of 172 and 162, respectively.
The US managed to net the top spot for city governance with New York City (17) scoring an impressive 226. The next closest cities are Taipei (8), Vienna (12), Beijing (54) and Seoul (6), scoring between 210 and 206.
