London is officially one of the happiest cities in the world in 2025

If you ever need an endorphin boost, London is here to serve. Our city has fantastic food, banging nights out, serene green spaces and spectacular culture in droves. We won’t pretend that it’s all sunshine and rainbows – the rental market is still a nightmare and the cost of living is remains frustratingly high, but the capital still has stuff going for it. Don’t believe us? A huge new  study has just named London one of the ‘happiest’ cities in the world. 

But what is happiness? Happy City Index reckons that it stems from things like quality education, inclusive policies, a good economy, decent transport, environmental protection, access to green areas and innovation. So, the index assessed 200 cities across the world on each and every one of those things to create it’s happiness ranking for 2025. 

The index caveats that ‘it would be misleading to crown just one city as the winner’. So, instead of naming one city the single happiest of them all, the index grouped places into either ‘gold’, ‘silver’ or ‘bronze’ categories. And this year, London secured gold. 

The Big Smoke landed 31st on the list with an overall score of 842, two places up from last year. The index called it a ‘powerhouse of business, culture, and governance’, scoring the capital particularly highly for education and inclusivity, urban management and environmental protection.

And if you ever feel sad about your daily commute, just remember that we’ve actually got it pretty good. In fact, London was the highest scoring city in the index’s mobility category and named a leading city for the quality of its public transport. As it happens, Time Out readers agree. 

See which cities made it into the top 20 on the Happy City Index here. 

Every London borough ranked from happiest to most miserable in 2024. 

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