Cool Copenhagen tops list of world’s best cities for work-life balance
Famed for its culinary genius, sophisticated design and Scandi-cool vibes, Copenhagen has been named the best city in the world for work-life balance.
The Danish capital tops an index compiled by holiday search engine Holidu.co.uk of cities around the world getting it right when it comes to the work-life sway.
Copenhagen ranks top for the average number of annual hours worked – most people in the harbour city work only 1,380 hours each year, compared with Singapore at the other end of the scale, where people toil for an annual average of 2,330 hours.
Copenhagen also scores well for happiness and well-being, with an overall eight out of 10 in the index.
Residents in the Scandi capital are also well rested, clocking up an average of nearly nine hours sleep each night, a figure only bettered by people in cities across Portugal.
Overall, the work-life balance index is dominated by European cities, which fill the first 32 places. It ranks cities on work-related factors such as number of hours at work, commute times and mandatory paid holidays, plus life factors such as average hours slept each night, trips taken every year, happiness /well-being levels and disposable income.
In the UK, Scotland comes out on top with Edinburgh ranked 40th and with a high disposable income score.
The capital city was also recently identified as the UK’s most “liveable” for expats.
Neighbouring Glasgow is the second-highest-ranked city in the UK in 41st, while Manchester, Liverpool and London also make the top 50. Canada’s Edmonton leads for the Great White North, ranking 51st, while in the US it is Las Vegas topping the rankings for the states in at 71st.
Peru’s cities rank highest for the number of minimum mandatory paid days of annual leave, with 42 days per year, while Zurich residents have the highest disposable income in the world.
Klagenfurt in Austria has the shortest commute time of any city in the index at a snappy nine minutes. On the opposite end of the spectrum is San Jose – the Costa Rican city clocks up daily commute times of more than one hour.
And when it comes to getting out there and travelling, Hong Kong reigns supreme.
Despite a lowly 110th ranking overall, the Asian city has residents take an average of 12 trips a year.
Middle Eastern countries are largely absent from the study. Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Beirut and Kuwait were originally included in the research, but later removed as a full data set could not be verified for each, a representative of the company told The National.