Zurich named one of the three happiest cities on Earth by new ranking

Zurich has been ranked as one of the happiest cities in the world by a new report from the Institute for Quality of Life. Strong ratings for the city’s economy, governance and education system propelled the Swiss metropolis onto the podium for 2025.

Happy City Index 2025

In the 6th edition of the Happy City Index, the Institute for Quality of Life ranked 200 cities around the world by the happiness of their residents. Though the report itself admits that what happiness means is subjective, it used 82 measurable indicators to try to find the places which are most conducive to happiness. These were then combined into six categories:

• Citizens: Quality of the school system, housing market, cultural scene, and support for innovative and inclusive policies.
• Governance: Government transparency, efficiency and how involved citizens are in decision making.
• Environment: Quality of environmental policies, from recycling and energy to biodiversity and green spaces.
• Economy: Quality of the job market, opportunities for new business and the wider economy.
• Health: Safety, quality of nutrition, work-life balance and mental health services.
• Mobility: Access to public transport, internet services and airports, and road safety.

Each city was given a rating in each category, which was then combined to determine an overall score. 

Copenhagen named the world's happiest city

This year, the report noted that while policies to improve the quality of life and the happiness of city dwellers are becoming more prevalent, global events and economic instability have obscured efforts to improve residents’ well-being.

For 2025, Copenhagen was rated as the happiest city in the world. The Danish capital was well reviewed across the categories, especially for its dynamic economy and the quality of its environmental policies.

What makes Zurich one of the world's happiest cities?

However, you don’t have to go far to find a slice of Switzerland, with Zurich rated as the second happiest city on Earth. The Swiss metropolis was followed by Singapore, Aarhus and Antwerp in the top five.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Zurich’s best scores were for the quality of its economy and job market, placing as the third best in the world in the category. It also did well for the quality of its schools and its status as a hub for innovation, ranking sixth best in the world.

What is surprising is where the Swiss metropolis performed worse: mobility. Though the report did not go into why the city fared so poorly in the category, the number of road accidents in the city and the relative slowness of Swiss railways to roll out disabled access facilities at stations could be to blame.

Swiss cities perform well in happiness ranking

Though they didn’t feature in the top 10, other Swiss cities were also well-received by the report, with Geneva (20th), Basel (47th), Bern (58th), and Lausanne (86th) all placing in the top 100. 

The worst-rated Swiss city for happiness was Lucerne in joint 122nd, mainly due to subpar scores for mobility and economy. However, the jewel of central Switzerland was a far way off the worst three cities for happiness, namely the Croatian city of Pula, Houston, Texas and the Turkish capital Ankara.

The 10 happiest cities in the world revealed

In all, here are the 10 happiest cities on Earth for 2025:

1. Copenhagen, Denmark
2. Zurich, Switzerland
3. Singapore
4. Aarhus, Denmark
5. Antwerp, Belgium
6. Seoul, South Korea
7. Stockholm, Sweden
8. Taipei, Taiwan
9. Munich, Germany
10. Rotterdam, the Netherlands

For more information about the study, check out the official website.