Greatest cities of the world london

We’ll never tire of being told we’re the best city in the world…

Yes, we’re having a pretty terrible year, but London has been on a surprisingly strong run of form over the last week. A few days before The Connaught Bar scooped the prize as the World’s Best Cocktail Bar, our city picked up another accolade – and it’s a big one. An annual ranking of the best cities in the world was just unveiled, and you know our beloved London went out and nicked the top spot!

International consultant group Resonance released the list on October 29, continuing an annual tradition. (We’ll blame coronavirus and some painfully slow election results for it escaping our attention for this long!) It bases the ranking on a multitude of factors, including but not limited to product (a city’s key institutions, attractions and infrastructure), programming (arts, culture, entertainment and culinary scene in a city), people (the immigration rate and diversity of a city), and prosperity (a city’s employment and corporate head offices, including the sub-categories of Fortune 500 Companies and Household Income as well as Employment Rate and Income Equality). As you can probably tell, finance and innovation score highest on this list, but a city which can marry that to great culture and nightlife is likely to soar highly on the list.

London came out on top of their rankings for a sixth year running – in fact, in this particular metric of the world’s best cities, London has never been anything except number one (duh). Despite what the group charitably described as the “uncharted terrain of a post-Brexit world”, we scored highly for number of global Fortune 500 companies, GDP per capita, and low unemployment. There was an alarming wealth gap between rich and poor which threatened our standing on the list (and, to be sure, needs serious addressing in the months and years to come), but running up the score with the quality of outdoor experiences and wealth of green spaces helped secure top spot.

Overall, the judging panel concluded that “there’s no better urban experience anywhere” in the world, a statement which we certainly aren’t going to disagree with. However, should you wish to look ahead to a time when we can all travel again, the list offers some excellent city break options in the top ten. Our pals across the pond are celebrating New York‘s second place, with Paris in third, Moscow taking fourth, and Tokyo snagging fifth place. Other brilliant spots including Singapore, Barcelona, Los Angeles, and Madrid helped round out the top ten, making for quite the bucket list of places to visit.

Of course, it helps to know that after this aforementioned grand world tour is all done and dusted, you’re coming home to the best city on the planet. Officially!

London may be number one in the world, but what’s London’s number one? We asked you to name London’s best neighbourhoods, and you celebrated some excellent places!

Also published on Medium.