Every month, it feels like a new city is crowned ‘the best in the world’. Sydney’s no stranger to the spotlight, most recently ranking as the fifth best city for culture globally. But now, for the very first time, Sydney has cracked the top ten in the Global Cities Index – an impressive achievement, given it was up against the 1,000 largest cities worldwide.
In the inaugural 2024 Global Cities Index by Oxford Economics, Sydney came in at 16th best in the world. But this year, it was one of only two new cities (alongside Boston) to enter the top ten, landing in an incredible seventh place. We ranked just behind Melbourne and overtook global heavyweights like Tokyo, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dublin and Copenhagen, securing a spot in the top one per cent of cities worldwide.
So, how does the Global Cities Index work? To compile the rankings, researchers at Oxford Economics assessed each city using 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.
Sydney truly shone in the Human Capital category, ranking tenth globally and first in Australia – largely thanks to its world-class universities, high concentration of company headquarters and a fast-growing economy with the country’s largest population of foreign workers. We also thrived in the Economics category, landing 21st in the world, driven by having Australia’s highest GDP.
However, Sydney’s major leap to seventh place is mostly thanks to improvements in our Quality of Life and Environment scores. In 2025, our Quality of Life ranking skyrocketed from 230th to 39th, while our Environmental score climbed from 363rd to 145th. Go, you good thing! The city’s long life expectancy, abundance of diverse cultural and recreational offerings, and low crime rates all boosted our Quality of Life score, while soaring housing costs dragged the score down – a challenge shared by all Australian cities on the Global Cities Index. Our Environmental score was also weakened by our subtropical climate, with Sydney facing more extreme temperature and rainfall anomalies than cities like Melbourne.
Overall, seven Australian cities cracked the Global Cities Index top 100 in 2025, with Melbourne in sixth place, Brisbane in 23rd, Perth in 31st, Canberra in 52nd, Adelaide in 54th and the Gold Coast in 69th. You can find a full list of Australia’s rankings in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index here.
Here are the top 10 cities in the Global Cities Index:
- New York
- London
- Paris
- San Jose
- Seattle
- Melbourne
- Sydney
- Boston
- Tokyo
- San Francisco
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