Revealed: the best city on Earth*

From luxury hotels to Unesco sites, Michelin stars to green space, clean air to disabled access, we’ve crunched the numbers and, as Greg Dickinson explains, at last we have the absolute, definitive answer... (*according to science)

The question of “which is the best city on Earth” is one that divides Telegraph Travel’s experts, who have collectively visited every corner of the planet but fail to reach a consensus on the matter. So we decided to get to the bottom of the question, once and for all, via a comprehensive research study.

The first step of our study was to decide which 50 cities would be in contention for the top spot. The final shortlist was a combination of your top picks in the most recent of our annual reader surveys, and cities selected by our panel of writers. With our shortlist in place, we then collated data across a range of different categories which reward cities for their practicality, cultural prowess and history, but also for breathing space, luxury and safety.

We wanted the winning city to reflect the ultimate visitor experience, not how convenient it is for residents, or how big it is. As such we ranked each city according to its number of Unesco World Heritage

sites (collections such as “the Works of Gaudi” in Barcelona count as one, but Heritage City status – held by Rome, for example – counts as three), number of Michelin-starred restaurants per capita (if not applicable, a mean score was rewarded), distance from city centre of the closest airport, clean air ranking according to the CDP environmental performance index, size of the biggest park in hectares, age of oldest extant building, number of five-star hotels per capita (as listed on booking. com with availability on September 13 2022), highest accessible observation point (including natural vantage points), number of museums and galleries listed on TripAdvisor (per capita), LGBT+ safety ranking based on the Asher and Lyric LGBT+ Danger Index, homicide rate according to the UNODC, disabled access (according to hotels data on kayak.com), annual hours of sunshine and urban population density.

Bonus points were issued to cities with a beach, a canal system, harbour or river, a bike or scooter sharing scheme, a symphony orchestra, and a metro system that comprises more than just buses and suburban railway networks. Cities like Beijing and Hong Kong, still off-limits to tourists due to strict Covid border or quarantine restrictions, were given a small points deduction since you cannot currently go. Cities listed as top picks in the most recent Telegraph Travel Awards reader survey received a small bonus score to reflect a visitor satisfaction rating.

After crunching the data, one city emerged which is, by some margin, the best in the world. Out of a possible 810 points, the top city scored 588, 24 points above second place and 260 points above the lowest-ranking city. And we were, frankly, delighted that this sunny city by the sea, full of architectural wonders and brilliant restaurants, came out on top. There is no other place quite like it...