We know, it seems like a new ‘greatest cities in the world’ ranking is published every other week. This time around, two Australian cities are being spotlighted (as they should be!) for their impressive ranking in the 2025 Global Cities Index. Both Melbourne and Sydney claimed spots in the top ten, which is an impressive feat, considering they were up against 1,000 of the largest cities worldwide.
To compile the rankings, researchers at Oxford Economics scored each city on 27 indicators across five categories, including Economics, Human Capital, Quality of Life, Environment and Governance. Cities were scored under each of these pillars, then the results were combined to reveal the world’s top-performing cities overall.
In 2025, Melbourne once again took the crown as the highest-ranking Australian city, and placed sixth worldwide. It climbed three spots from ninth in 2024, overtaking heavyweights like San Francisco, Los Angeles and Tokyo. The Victorian capital truly shone in the Human Capital category, where it ranked 12th globally – largely thanks to its high-quality universities and fast-growing economy that’s attracted many foreign workers. Melbourne also secured a spot in the top 20 cities for Economics, ranked in the top ten per cent for Environment and tied with Sydney as Australia’s highest-ranked city for Governance in 15th place.
Melbourne’s slightly larger neighbour, Sydney, was one of only two new cities (alongside Boston) to enter the top ten in 2025. The NSW capital jumped from 16th place in 2024 to an incredible seventh this year, thanks to improvements in its Quality of Life and Environment scores. Sydney outshone Melbourne in the Human Capital category, benefiting from a high concentration of company headquarters and Australia’s largest foreign-born population. However, the report flags soaring housing costs as a weakness dragging down its Quality of Life score – a challenge shared by all Australian cities on the Global Cities Index.
In 2025, Brisbane overtook Perth to become Australia’s third-highest-ranked city, moving from 27th place in 2024 to 23rd. It shares similar strengths to both Melbourne and Sydney, including high life expectancy, a large foreign-born population and strong educational institutions. However, it’s not all sunshine in the Sunshine State, with weaknesses including more natural disasters, larger rainfall anomalies and high housing expenditure.
Perth dropped from 23rd in 2024 to 31st place this year, with the city’s heavy reliance on the mining sector contributing to lower economic diversity. Canberra also saw a slight drop, falling from 44th to 52nd place overall. Still, our nation’s capital ranked number one in the world for Quality of Life, benefiting from one of the longest life expectancies and some of the highest, most equally paid jobs.
The final two Australian cities to make the 2025 Global Cities Index were Adelaide in 54th place (down from 51st in 2024) and the Gold Coast in 69th position (up from 81st in 2024).
You can find a full list of Australia’s rankings in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index here.
Here’s how Australia ranked on the Global Cities Index:
6. Melbourne
7. Sydney (#10 for Human Capital)
23. Brisbane
31. Perth
52. Canberra (#1 for Quality of Life)
54. Adelaide
69. Gold Coast
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