Methodology
Dataset 0.1.0-seed, generated 17 August 2026 · 33,518 cities. This page is generated from the same indicator registry the scoring pipeline runs on — it cannot drift from what the numbers actually do.
How scoring works
Every score is a percentile rank, 0–100. A greenness score of 84 means "greener than 84% of the comparison group" — nothing more. We never combine raw values across units.
Country-level indicators are ranked across countries, not cities, so populous countries don't distort the distribution; every city inherits its country's percentile and the value is badged country everywhere it appears. Country-level indicators also carry a reduced weight (×0.6) in dimension scores.
Missing data stays missing. A dimension is only scored when at least 40% of its weight is covered (60% for Happiness). An overall score additionally requires real city-level data (confidence A or B) and at least four scored dimensions. We never impute.
Confidence badges measure how much of the available city-level evidence we actually hold for a city: A = 80% or more · B = 40% or more · C = below that. Happiness is country-level everywhere, so no city reaches 100% — confidence is scored against what is obtainable, not against perfection.
Resilience
How exposed the city is to natural hazards, and how well its society can cope with and recover from shocks.
| Indicator | Level | Weight | Source | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Flood safety(lower is better) Share of the urban centre's population inside the 100-year riverine flood extent; lower is safer. | city | 0.25 | GHSL Urban Centre Database R2024A (EC JRC) (2025) | CC BY 4.0 |
Earthquake safety(lower is better) Share of the urban centre's population in a seismic hazard zone of Mercalli intensity 6 or above; lower is safer. | city | 0.15 | GHSL Urban Centre Database R2024A (EC JRC) (2025) | CC BY 4.0 |
Compound hazards(lower is better) Largest number of distinct hazards recorded in a single disaster event affecting the city; lower is safer. | city | 0.1 | GHSL Urban Centre Database R2024A (EC JRC) (2015) | CC BY 4.0 |
Vulnerability(lower is better) INFORM Vulnerability component: socio-economic vulnerability and vulnerable groups (0–10, lower is better). | country | 0.25 | INFORM Risk Index (EC JRC) (2024) | CC BY 4.0 |
Coping capacity(lower is better) INFORM Lack of Coping Capacity component: institutional and infrastructural capacity to respond to disasters (0–10, lower is better). | country | 0.25 | INFORM Risk Index (EC JRC) (2024) | CC BY 4.0 |
Liveability & Environment
Air quality, green space, climate comfort and the physical environment of everyday life.
| Indicator | Level | Weight | Source | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Air quality(lower is better) Population-weighted average PM2.5 concentration across the urban centre; lower is cleaner. | city | 0.3 | GHSL Urban Centre Database R2024A (EC JRC) (2020) | CC BY 4.0 |
Greenness Mean vegetation index (NDVI) across the built-up area of the urban centre. | city | 0.2 | GHSL Urban Centre Database R2024A (EC JRC) (2025) | CC BY 4.0 |
People near green space Share of the urban centre's population living in an area of high greenness. | city | 0.2 | GHSL Urban Centre Database R2024A (EC JRC) (2025) | CC BY 4.0 |
Heat comfort(lower is better) Days per year the Universal Thermal Climate Index exceeds 32 °C (strong heat stress); lower is more comfortable. | city | 0.2 | GHSL Urban Centre Database R2024A (EC JRC) (2020) | CC BY 4.0 |
Tree canopy Average tree canopy height across the built-up area. | city | 0.1 | GHSL Urban Centre Database R2024A (EC JRC) (2020) | CC BY 4.0 |
Quality of Life & Services
Health, safety and access to the services — healthcare, education, transit, culture — that daily life depends on.
| Indicator | Level | Weight | Source | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Hospital access Share of the urban centre's population living within 1 km of a hospital (OpenStreetMap via healthsites.io). | city | 0.2 | GHSL Urban Centre Database R2024A (EC JRC) (2025) | CC BY 4.0 |
Pharmacy access Share of the urban centre's population living within 1 km of a pharmacy (OpenStreetMap via healthsites.io). | city | 0.1 | GHSL Urban Centre Database R2024A (EC JRC) (2025) | CC BY 4.0 |
Transport infrastructure Critical Infrastructure Spatial Index for the transport sector — density of transport infrastructure across the city. | city | 0.2 | GHSL Urban Centre Database R2024A (EC JRC) (2020) | CC BY 4.0 |
Health infrastructure Critical Infrastructure Spatial Index for the health sector. | city | 0.15 | GHSL Urban Centre Database R2024A (EC JRC) (2020) | CC BY 4.0 |
Education infrastructure Critical Infrastructure Spatial Index for the education sector. | city | 0.15 | GHSL Urban Centre Database R2024A (EC JRC) (2020) | CC BY 4.0 |
Life expectancy Life expectancy at birth, total years (World Bank SP.DYN.LE00.IN). | country | 0.1 | World Bank Open Data (2024) | CC BY 4.0 |
Safety from violence(lower is better) Intentional homicides per 100,000 people (World Bank VC.IHR.PSRC.P5); lower is safer. | country | 0.1 | World Bank Open Data (2023) | CC BY 4.0 |
Economy & Opportunity
Prosperity, jobs and the opportunity to build a livelihood.
| Indicator | Level | Weight | Source | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
City GDP per capita (PPP) Gross domestic product per person for the urban centre, purchasing-power adjusted. | city | 0.3 | GHSL Urban Centre Database R2024A (EC JRC) (2020) | CC BY 4.0 |
Human development Subnational Human Development Index for the region containing the city (Global Data Lab / UNDP). | city | 0.2 | GHSL Urban Centre Database R2024A (EC JRC) (2020) | CC BY 4.0 |
Schooling Mean years of schooling among adults aged 25+ in the region containing the city. | city | 0.15 | GHSL Urban Centre Database R2024A (EC JRC) (2020) | CC BY 4.0 |
Internet speed Average fixed-broadband download speed measured in the city (Ookla Speedtest). | city | 0.1 | GHSL Urban Centre Database R2024A (EC JRC) (2023) | CC BY 4.0 |
Employment(lower is better) Unemployment, % of total labour force, ILO modelled estimate (World Bank SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS); lower is better. | country | 0.15 | World Bank Open Data (2025) | CC BY 4.0 |
National GDP per capita (PPP) GDP per capita, PPP, constant international $ (World Bank NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.KD). | country | 0.05 | World Bank Open Data (2025) | CC BY 4.0 |
Internet adoption Individuals using the Internet, % of population (World Bank IT.NET.USER.ZS). | country | 0.05 | World Bank Open Data (2025) | CC BY 4.0 |
Happiness & Wellbeing
Self-reported life evaluation and its social foundations. Survey data exists mostly at country level — scores here describe the country a city is in, and are badged as such.
| Indicator | Level | Weight | Source | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Life evaluation Cantril-ladder life evaluation, 3-year average (World Happiness Report). | country | 0.4 | World Happiness Report (2025) | Free with citation (Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Oxford) |
Social support Contribution of social support to life evaluation (World Happiness Report, 'explained by' decomposition). | country | 0.2 | World Happiness Report (2025) | Free with citation (Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Oxford) |
Freedom of life choices Contribution of freedom to make life choices to life evaluation (World Happiness Report). | country | 0.2 | World Happiness Report (2025) | Free with citation (Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Oxford) |
Trust & low corruption Contribution of (low) perceived corruption to life evaluation (World Happiness Report). | country | 0.2 | World Happiness Report (2025) | Free with citation (Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Oxford) |
Attributions
- Wikidata — CC0 1.0
- World Bank Open Data — CC BY 4.0
- World Happiness Report — Free with citationHelliwell, J. F., Layard, R., Sachs, J. D., De Neve, J.-E., Aknin, L. B., & Wang, S. (Eds.). World Happiness Report. Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Oxford.
- INFORM Risk Index (EC Joint Research Centre) — CC BY 4.0
Known limitations
- Coverage is uneven by design. City-level indicators come from the GHSL Urban Centre Database, which maps built-up urban centres — roughly a third of the towns in our universe have one. The rest carry country data only and are deliberately left unscored rather than ranked on their country's average.
- An urban centre is a conurbation, not a municipality. The Tokyo urban centre spans Yokohama and Kawasaki; the Paris one spans Saint-Denis. A city inside a larger centre inherits that centre's environment and economy figures, and its page says so.
- Population is Wikidata's “city proper” figure; urban-centre population is shown separately and never mixed into it.
- Several indicators derive from OpenStreetMap (hospital and pharmacy access), so they inherit OSM's uneven mapping completeness — thinner coverage usually means less mapping, not necessarily fewer facilities.
- Percentiles compare against the cities we can score today; adding data shifts ranks.