NZ snubbed in report ranking world’s best cities for 2025

London won the overall ranking and ranked top in seven of the 28 subcategories such as nightlife, Instagram hashtags and museums.

New York was ranked second, followed by Paris, Tokyo and Singapore in fifth. Australia just made the top 10 list, with Sydney in 10th place.

Auckland praised for air quality

Aotearoa didn’t make the top 10, or the top 20. Instead, it was ranked 47th.

Auckland was ranked the best city in the world for air quality and the sixth best for labour force participation.

“New Zealand’s largest and most cosmopolitan city balances modernity with natural beauty,” read the entry. It also said the renewed Britomart and Viaduct Harbour, as well as the new Commercial Bay area, have “transformed” the city’s downtown area.

It also called out the City Rail Link, saying it would “dramatically improve transit connectivity across the city” once it’s complete in 2026.

While it was the 16th most “livable” city, it was not particularly “lovable” or “prosperous”, ranking 69th and 99th, respectively.

Prosperity reflects the relative strength of human capital and was calculated using several metrics, such as GDP per capita, labour force participation, percentage of the population with a bachelor’s degree and poverty rate.

Auckland did rank sixth in labour force participation but seemingly performed poorly in the other metrics, relative to other major cities.

Europe scores high on ‘Lovability’

London was also rated the most ‘lovable’ city. “Lovability speaks to the relative vibrancy and quality of place of a city relative to its competitive set,” the report stated. Metrics for this category included the number of concerts, bars, clubs, attractions, and museums rated higher than four stars on Tripadvisor, plus the total number of restaurants, number of Instagram posts with the location hashtag, popularity on Google Trends and survey results from international respondents.

Of the 10 most “lovable” cities, most were in Europe, including Paris (2), Rome (5), Barcelona (6), Madrid (7) and Berlin (9).

The 2025 World’s Best Cities

1. London

2. New York

3. Paris

4. Tokyo

5. Singapore

6. Rome

7. Madrid

8. Barcelona

9. Berlin

10. Sydney

11. Amsterdam

12. San Francisco

13. Dubai

14. Los Angeles

15. Toronto

16. Seoul

17. Chicago

18. Vienna

19. Seattle

20. Milan