Luxembourg has retained first place for the second year in a row in the global quality of life ranking compiled by the Deutsche Bank Research Institute.
Copenhagen took second place, and Amsterdam came in third. Vienna and Munich tied for fourth place, followed by Frankfurt, Helsinki, Geneva, Zurich, and Edinburgh.
The ranking takes into account purchasing power, safety, healthcare, cost of living, housing affordability, commute time, environmental pollution, and climate.
Cities in Western and Northern Europe dominate the top ten. At the same time, the world’s largest financial centers ranked significantly lower: Paris came in 43rd, New York 46th, London 47th, and Hong Kong 55th.
Their rankings are dragged down by expensive real estate, high living costs, long commutes, and environmental issues. Thus, high salaries alone do not guarantee a city’s leadership in quality of life.
In Numbeo’s European sample (Europe: Current Crime Index by City), the highest Crime Index is recorded in Marseille (France) – 66.7. It is followed by Birmingham (UK) – 63.8, Grenoble (France) – 62.6, Naples (Italy) – 62.3, and Coventry (UK) – 61.7.
At the bottom of the European list, i.e., among the most peaceful cities according to the ranking, are The Hague (Netherlands) – 19.9, Tampere (Finland) – 20.4, Eindhoven (Netherlands) – 20.9, as well as Trondheim (Norway) and Utrecht (Netherlands) – 21.0 each.
Numbeo publishes crime/safety indices based on user surveys. The current version is continuously updated and is based on data from the last five years. The project has been running since 2009 and is widely cited in the media and city comparison services, but the indicators reflect subjective perceptions of safety and are not a substitute for official statistics.
Several Ukrainian cities are represented in the current Numbeo Crime Index ranking. Odesa has the highest score among them (55.2), followed by Dnipro (53.7), Kharkiv (47.2), Kyiv (45.5), and Lviv (37.2).
In Numbeo’s global list, these cities are ranked as follows: Odesa – 160th, Dnipro – 177th, Kharkiv – 233rd, Kyiv – 247th, and Lviv – 320th.
The bottom of the current global ranking is occupied by Pietermaritzburg (South Africa) – 82.8 and Pretoria (South Africa) – 81.8, while Abu Dhabi (UAE) – 11.0 is listed as the safest city in the table. In Europe, Marseille has the highest Crime Index (66.7) and The Hague has the lowest (19.9).
Numbeo was launched in April 2009. The Crime Index is based on user surveys and reflects a subjective assessment of safety rather than statistics on reported crimes. The current rating is continuously updated and is based on data from the last five years, so the results should be interpreted as an indicator of perception and used in conjunction with official sources.
Uzhhorod is now the most expensive city in Ukraine in terms of rental housing costs, followed by Lviv and Kyiv, according to the LUN real estate portal.
“In the first two years of the war, Lviv was considered the most expensive city for renting apartments, but now the situation has changed. In July, Uzhhorod became the most expensive city – a one-bedroom apartment here costs an average of UAH 17.7 thousand per month. This is more expensive than in the capital or in Lviv,” the press release says.
According to LUN, the average cost of renting a 1-room apartment in Lviv as of July is 16.5 thousand UAH/month, in Kyiv – 15 thousand UAH/month.
Next in the ranking are Chernivtsi – 12.3 thousand UAH/month on average for renting a one-bedroom apartment, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kropyvnytskyi, Poltava, Rivne – 12 thousand UAH/month, Cherkasy – 10 thousand UAH/month, Khmelnytskyi – 9.5 thousand UAH/month, Ternopil – 9.4 thousand UAH/month.
“LUN” notes that Odesa, which was previously expensive for renting housing, now ranks 14th with 7 thousand UAH/month. The lowest prices are generally recorded in cities that are close to the frontline and suffer from military operations: Chernihiv (5.8 thousand UAH/month), Zaporizhzhia, Sumy (5.5 thousand UAH/month), Mykolaiv (5 thousand UAH/month), Kharkiv and Kherson (4 thousand UAH/month).
