Some cities just get Gen Z. Whether it’s buzzing nightlife, creative culture or affordable fun, they know how to help young adults (aged 13-28 in 2025) live their best lives. So Time Out quizzed thousands of Gen Zs around the world to figure out which cities are as good to live in as a 3am kebab after a big night out.
This data comes from Time Out's annual ranking of the world’s best cities, which is based on a survey of 18,500 locals who share their opinions on everything from food and culture to nightlife and green spaces. But what makes a city great means something different to each generation, and that’s why we dug a little deeper into the data from the under-30s to find out what they actually value, including affordability, great nightlife, an accessible cultural scene, walkability and ease of meeting new people.
Australia’s cultural capital, Melbourne, has landed in second place (slay!), beating out zoomer hot spots like Barcelona, Edinburgh and Mexico City. According to the data, 77 per cent of Gen Z described Melbourne as diverse and inclusive, with a whopping 96 per cent giving high ratings to the city’s art and culture scene. Our beloved city also scored highly for quality of life, with an impressive 91 per cent of twenty-somethings saying the quality of life in Melbourne is ‘good’ or ‘amazing’.
We reached out to our Gen Z audience via Instagram to discover exactly what they love most about Melbourne – and yep, the responses well and truly confirmed the global findings. The most common answer was just how multicultural our city is, with Melbourne's café culture also getting plenty of mentions (given how twenty-somethings are gravitating towards ‘third spaces’ that offer a matcha-fuelled antidote to nightlife fatigue, we're not surprised in the slightest). Street art, sport, the electronic music scene, theatre and how safe the city is were also specified.
Sydney just missed out on a top ten spot, ranking as the 11th-best city for Gen Z to live in worldwide. Its housing market is more unaffordable than Melbourne’s, and Sydneysiders have a reputation for going to bed earlier than most – but on the whole, it’s a fabulous place to live and work in your twenties.
So, which city snagged the top spot for Gen Zs? It was none other than Bangkok. The Thai capital took the crown thanks to its stand-out scores in happiness (84 per cent of Gen Z say they’re happy living there) and affordability (71 per cent say it’s a budget-friendly city to live in). Rounding out the top five behind Melbourne were Cape Town, New York City and Copenhagen.
These are the 20 best cities for Gen Z
- Bangkok, Thailand
- Melbourne, Australia
- Cape Town, South Africa
- New York City, United States
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Barcelona, Spain
- Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- Mexico City, Mexico
- London, United Kingdom
- Shanghai, China
- Sydney, Australia
- Beijing, China
- Paris, France
- Tokyo, Japan
- Berlin, Germany
- Seville, Spain
- Chicago, United States
- Chiang Mai, Thailand
- Prague, Czech Republic
- Lisbon, Portugal