Singapore is ranked the 7th most walkable city in the world

Singapore has officially been ranked as the eighth most walkable city in the world, according to Time Out’s 2026 survey. And as people who have done the 36km coast-to-coast walk in Singapore, where you essentially walk from West to East in under a day, we can attest to this.

Every year, Time Out runs a monster-sized city survey – this one pulled in around 24,000 people globally – asking locals to rate everything from where they eat at midnight to how easy it is to actually get around without needing a transport degree. The ranking for walkability is based purely on how many locals said their city is “good” or “amazing” to explore on foot. 

Singapore lands in eighth place, with an 86% walkability score – pretty solid for a place where stepping outside often feels like walking into a desert. Our covered walkways do a lot of heavy lifting here – they stretch across neighbourhoods, shielding pedestrians from sudden rain or intense sunshine. 

And this isn’t even a modern invention. The idea echoes the old “Five Foot Ways” (or kaki lima) attached to traditional shophouses – corridors built so people could still browse, trade, and loiter without being at the mercy of tropical weather. 

Seoul and Edinburgh share the crown at joint-first, both scoring a striking 93 percent. Seoul does it with sheer scale and clever design – think elevated green walkways like Seoullo 7017 and riverside paths along Cheonggyecheon that stitch major districts together. Edinburgh, meanwhile, leans into compact chaos: steep streets, cobblestones, and everything important packed tightly enough that you barely need to check a map.

Here are the top 20 most walkable cities in the world, according to Time Out:

1. Seoul and Edinburgh
2. New York City
3. Copenhagen
4. Oslo
5. Stockholm
6. Paris
7. Singapore
8. Helsinki
9. Kraków
10. Riga
11. Vienna
12. Amsterdam
13. Tallinn
14. Zurich
15. Taipei
16. Vancouver
17. Macau
18. Melbourne
19. Munich

Read more about the ranking here.

READ MORE

Lady M reopens at Jewel Changi Airport – with two more outlets to follow

Malay Heritage Centre reopens April 25 with revamped galleries and a 9-day festival

Singapore HeritageFest 2026 takes you onto bumboats, into ports, and around Pulau Ubin