Let me quickly clear the air: I personally don’t think Canberra is ‘boring’. I spent some of the best years of my life there as a student, so I totally understand why locals get frustrated with its reputation as the land of politicians, bus stops and roundabouts. Sure, Canberra copped a ‘notable mention’ in a 2023 global ranking of the Most Boring Cities in the World – but there’s far bigger news to talk about now. Australia’s capital has just been named the best city on Earth for quality of life, beating out the 1,000 largest cities worldwide.
This ranking comes from the most recent Global Cities Index by Oxford Economics, which ranks the best cities in the world across five categories, including quality of life, economics, human capital, environment and governance. Both Melbourne and Sydney cracked the overall top ten in 2025, which is a big deal for them. And while Canberra narrowly missed out on a top 50 spot, landing in 52nd place, it outshone all the other Australian cities in the quality of life category. It even overtook Grenoble, France, which held the top spot for quality of life in 2024, when Canberra came in second.
Our nation’s capital was the highest-ranked Australian city in four of the six quality of life indicators, including income equality, income per person, housing expenditure and life expectancy. It also ranked second for its recreation and cultural sites behind Sydney, but fell short when it came to crime rate, ranking the lowest of all Aussie cities in that category.
Senior economist at Oxford Economics Anthony Bernard-Sasges said, “The Australian capital ranks first in the world for quality of life this year, largely driven by the city’s high incomes combined with its low degree of income inequality, thanks to the higher availability of stable and high-paying government jobs than elsewhere.”
The city also has excellent healthcare facilities and ranks well in terms of life expectancy. And although Canberra is not traditionally viewed as a cultural hub (and has far fewer recreation and cultural sites than Sydney or Melbourne), its smaller population means that it scores very well in terms of sites per resident.”
You can check out the full Global Cities Index rankings here or see our summary below.
These are the 10 best cities in the world for quality of life:
- Canberra, Australia
- Bergen, Norway
- Grenoble, France
- Singapore
- Luxembourg
- Bern, Switzerland
- Paris, France
- Linz, Austria
- Oslo, Norway
- Basel, Switzerland
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