Researchers have revealed the best cities to live in the United States, with Honolulu taking the top spot.
The Economist Intelligence Unit just released its Global Liveability Index for 2025. The report looked at 173 cities across the world and evaluated them using five categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.
The U.S. did not make it into the top 20 cities in the report, but Honolulu did rank number 23, making it the best city to live in the U.S. for the second year in a row, according to Forbes, which reviewed the report.
Atlanta ranked second best among U.S. cities, 29 overall, followed by Pittsburgh, which placed 30 overall.
Seattle took fourth place for best city in America, 34 overall, and Washington, D.C., placed fifth in the U.S., 38 overall.
The biggest cities in the country, New York and Los Angeles, ranked 69 overall and 57 overall, respectively.
Out of the 21 U.S. cities evaluated in the report, 14 have moved up in the overall annual ranking, “but mostly because other cities fell,” according to the authors of the report.
Forbes reported American cities performed well in education but struggled with social unrest and gun violence.
“Weak gun-control laws mean that crime is often violent and fatal and undermines social cohesion,” the authors of the report wrote.
The authors predicted U.S. cities would rank worse on the global list in the future with President Donald Trump’s proposed policies.
“With the Trump administration in the U.S. proposing to cut public spending on education and healthcare, the region remains susceptible to further downgrades in future editions of this report,” the authors wrote.
At the top of the overall world list was Copenhagen. The Danish city scored perfectly in stability, education and infrastructure, replacing Vienna as the best city in the world to live.
Vienna in Austria, and Zurich in Switzerland were tied for second place.
Three Australian cities made it into the top 10 — with Melbourne ranking behind Zurich and Switzerland, followed by Sydney in sixth place and Adelaide coming in ninth.
Damascus, Syria, placed last in the overall list.
“Despite last year’s regime change, Syria’s capital city continues to be scarred by years of civil war and has seen no improvement in liveability,” the report’s authors wrote.
