The World’s Most Liveable Cities

The last 18 months have changed how we all think about where we live and crystallized the need to make our cities more liveable.

Monocle recently the Danish capital this year’s most liveable city as the pandemic has made discussions about green space, better housing and tempting new talent more important than ever. It also called into focus the Asian cities which do a great job at providing liveable urban spaces.

“Copenhagen is one of those cities where there is a real ambition to deliver a better quality of life for everyone,” says Monocle’s editor in chief, Andrew Tuck. “The ambitions around creating a cleaner environment are best in class and the city is reaping the rewards of years of urban investment.”

Copenhagen named the world’s best city for Quality of Life by Monocle. Credit Jan Søndergaard

The next five spots in the survey went to Zürich, Helsinki, Stockholm, Tokyo and Vienna, with the full list of best cities reading:

  1. Copenhagen
  2. Zürich 
  3. Helsinki
  4. Stockholm
  5. Tokyo
  6. Vienna
  7. Lisbon
  8. Auckland
  9. Taipei
  10. Sydney
  11. Seoul
  12. Vancouver
  13. Munich
  14. Berlin
  15. Amsterdam
  16. Madrid
  17. Melbourne
  18. Kyoto
  19. Brisbane
  20. Los Angeles

These are the cities that have used the past year to build back better; defend their economies, cultural scenes and high streets; and to press ahead with new projects. The full survey and an examination of the ranking appears in Monocle’s July/August 2021 edition, on newsstands worldwide now.

Published by Editorial Team

The Asia Rising Editorial Team is made up of a multinational team of writers, content experts and journalists from around the world operating out of our Bureaus in New York, Bangkok, Toronto and while on assignment across Asia.