For most of us, 2022 is a fantastically exciting time to live in a city. After two years of on-off lockdowns, cities are bursting with energy: long-delayed exhibitions are back with a bang, hyped restaurants are back on the menu and there’s so much stuff happening everywhere, nearly all the time.
We’re all getting back in the swing of what city life should be all about, which makes the results from this year’s Time Out Index feel all the more celebratory. Covering everything from nightlife and museums to dating, access to green space and community spirit, more than 20,000 city-dwellers across the globe gave us the lowdown on what life’s currently like in their city.
The answers from the survey were then combined with insights from Time Out’s global network of experts and contributors to come up with our definitive ranking of the best cities in the world for 2022.
Top of the table this year is Edinburgh, which ranked well thanks to its huge number of new openings, wide variety of things to do, walkability and the sheer number of residents who described it as ‘beautiful’. In second place was Chicago, which took title of the funnest city in the world (according to locals), and third overall came Medellín, which topped the Index for eating, drinking, partygoing and community spirit.
Fourth was Glasgow, thanks in part to the city’s friendliness and vast amount of green space, while Amsterdam came fifth thanks to its progressiveness and famed cyclability.
Want to know where else made the list? Discover our full ranking of the 53 best cities in the world right now.