Best European cities: Rome regains fourth place, Milan falls back again (now 18th)
The annual ranking of the consulting company Resonance. The lead remains with London, Paris and Berlin
Key points
The leading trio does not move but in return an Italian city, Rome, advances below the podium. This is what happens in the 2026 edition of Europe's Best cities, the annual ranking of the cities of the Old Continent drawn up by the international consulting firm Resonance. The top three urban centres are, in an order unchanged from the previous three editions, London, Paris and Berlin. The Italian capital, on the other hand, gains the fourth position that was taken from it in 2025 by Barcelona.
The methodology
The ranking is a combination of statistics and user-generated data from online sources such as Google, Instagram and TikTok to measure the 'quality of place' in terms of experience. The performance data measures 47 metrics and 33 subcategories that are aggregated into three indices: liveability, friendliness and prosperity. The ranking, the report says, keeps out all Russian cities 'due to the country's illegal invasion of Ukraine and its continued military aggression'.
London, Paris and Berlin's record
The combination of all factors ensures London's supremacy: the 'capital of capitals' - according to Resonance's definition - takes first place in three sub-categories (more than any other city), dominates the prosperity and pleasantness indices and takes second place for liveability.
Of Paris, in second place overall, the great transformation brought about by the Plan Vélo, which has imposed a 30 km/h speed limit throughout the city and ensured more than a thousand kilometres of cycle lanes, bringing the rate of cycling to almost double in the last two years, is highlighted. There are also shadows: the north-eastern districts have unemployment rates close to 12%, weighing the city down in terms of unemployment rate (121st place) and labour force participation (147th place).
In Berlin (third position), the report says, 'the hospitality and art machine is in full swing': around 10 per cent of all jobs in the city depend on tourism and the city's techno culture is now recognised by Unesco. But the German capital also excels in the corporate ecosystem and big business index. Here, GDP 'grew by 0.8 per cent in 2024, again outperforming the national economy, with employment increasing by 0.3 per cent year-on-year, slightly above the federal average. The city now produces around 207 billion euros of economic output, fuelled mainly by services' And again: 'Berlin has also become the undisputed engine of German start-ups: more than 4,800 start-ups - about a quarter of the national total - are based in the city'.
