The UK is pretty great, if you ask us. We’ve got gorgeous seaside towns, magnificent national parks, breathtaking landscapes and thriving, world-leading cities. Of course, here at Time Out UK we may be a little biased, but we promise that it’s not just us that thinks so highly of this little island. In fact three of our metropolises have just been crowned among the best in the world by a Canadian company Resonance Consultancy. And one was named the greatest on the planet.
Every year, Resonance Consultancy unveils its comprehensive World’s Best Cities ranking. It evaluates cities based on three broad measures, which each consist of a bunch of subcategories. There’s ‘liveability’, which looks at stuff like air quality, rent prices and green spaces, ‘lovability’ which assesses nightlife, restaurants and social media engagement, and ‘prosperity’ which covers rates of unemployment, educational attainment and GDP per capita.
For an unbelievable 11th year in a row, the survey named London the best city on the globe. Resonance lauded it as the ‘capital of capitals’ and said that its ‘magnetic appeal continues to draw a global audience, from students and entrepreneurs to tourists and corporate titans’.
The Big Smoke came first in the world in the prosperity category, second for lovability and third for liveability. It secured the number one spot in 34 of the study’s subcategories, including airports and the number of large companies looking to invest in the city. And it earned extra praise for its ever-changing skyline and for being in ‘a state of constant reinvention’. You can read more about why London was crowned the top dog here. In our own ranking of the world’s best cities this year, we put London in fifth place.
The next highest ranking UK city on this year’s list was Manchester, which came in a respectable 69th place (especially since it didn’t make the cut in 2024). Its best categories were ‘climate risk’ (for which it ranked ninth) and airports (12th place). Resonance called it ‘England’s worker bee city’ and noted that it’s ‘shifting into high gear across both culture and development’.
Resonance spotlighted Manc’s new Co-op Live arena, which is the largest indoor arena in Europe and attracted one million fans in less than a year, the regeneration project planned for Old Trafford stadium and Victoria North, a 15,000-home redevelopment north of the city centre expected to ‘bring new communities’ from 2027.
Birmingham was the third and final British city on the ranking, just scraping in at number 99. Resonance said that Brum is ‘blending history with fresh ambition’ and highlighted exciting new additions to the city, like the 51-storey One Eastside, the 49-story Octagon skyscraper and the upcoming Eastside Metro tram extension. It also happens to be home to Time Out’s coolest UK neighbourhood outside of London for 2025: Digbeth.
Find out which other cities made it into Resonance’s global top 10 for 2025 here.
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