From access to culture and green space to cool neighborhoods, plenty goes into making a city a great place to live or visit. Time Out’s annual ranking, built on responses from over 24,000 locals, looks beyond food and nightlife to measure true resident happiness. By crunching data on daily joy, local positivity, and overall sense of belonging, and selecting only the top-ranked city per country, this gallery looks at the ultimate global ranking.
Click on to discover which top 20 cities bring their residents the most joy in 2026!