Measuring which is the best European city is a subjective task, depending on the reason to live there: to study, to visit, to work or something else. Oxford Economics selected three criteria to rank 100 cities: human capital, economy and quality of life. The result: Luxembourg tops the list, followed by London and Oslo.

It is mainly thanks to its economy that the city ranks so well, since it comes first on this point with an index of 76 out of 100. The indicator includes 15% GDP, 25% long-term forecasts, 20% productivity, 25% employment growth forecasts and 15% income equality.

In terms of human capital, it is in second place at 79/100, just behind London. Here, 30% of the population growth forecasts are taken into account as well as 25% the old age dependency ratio and the share of the population with a higher education degree and 20% the share of the population born abroad.

The quality of life issue

The Luxembourg capital could have done better in terms of quality of life, where it came 18th with an index of 73. This criterion is based 50% on resident satisfaction surveys, with the rest divided between the unemployment rate, the proportion of households with access to broadband, employment in health and social work, traffic jams and the average annual temperature. The data studied correspond to June 2022.

As a result, Luxembourg City looks ideal when looking at its economic and employment forecasts. This ranking must be put into perspective in the absence of criteria such as the cost of living and especially housing.

Another , placed Luxembourg 17th out of 172 cities compared worldwide. It is based on other data such as safety, health, environment, education and infrastructure.

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.