Chicago was just voted one of the best cities in the world

Chicago has been raking in the accolades this year, from being voted the best big city in the U.S. for the ninth consecutive year to being home to one of the coolest neighborhoods in the world, but we’re not done yet: our town was just named the 35th best city in the world by Resonance Consultancy’s 2026 World’s Best Cities ranking.

This isn’t just a flattering opinion, though: Resonance Consultancy and Ipsos, a multinational market research and consulting firm, crunched a whole slew of numbers to inform this global ranking. To come up with the report, the agencies surveyed over 21,000 folks across 30 different countries to determine each city's Place Power™ Score, which takes note of three different categories: livability (i.e., walkability, access to green space, air quality, etc.), loveability (i.e., culture, dining, attractions, etc.) and prosperity (i.e., economic indicators of success).

London tops the global list for the 11th year in a row and New York lands at number two, the best city in the U.S. In addition to New York and Chicago, three other U.S. cities broke the ranking’s top 50: Los Angeles (number 12), Miami (Nnumber 26) and San Francisco (number 28).

"Few cities on the planet are firing on all cylinders like America’s great Midwest metropolis," reads the Chicago section of the report. "The city is leaner and more efficient than ever, boasting the second-highest number of Fortune 500 headquarters in the country, behind only New York."

Among the standout qualities that helped Chicago land in the top 50 is the city's corporate expansions, current tech surge and groundbreaking major infrastructure projects: O’Hare International Airport’s Satellite Concourse 1 and Studio Gang’s Global Terminal.

The world’s 20 best cities in 2026, according to Resonance Consultancy:

1. London, UK
2. New York, USA
3. Paris, France
4. Tokyo, Japan
5. Madrid, Spain
6. Singapore
7. Rome, Italy
8. Dubai, UAE
9. Berlin, Germany
10. Barcelona, Spain
11. Sydney, Australia
12. Los Angeles, CA
13. Seoul, South Korea
14. Amsterdam, Netherlands
15. Beijing, China
16. Shanghai, China
17. Toronto, Canada
18. São Paulo, Brazil
19. Hong Kong, China
20. Istanbul, Türkiye

You can read the full Resonance report here.