London tops best cities list, Dubai takes 6th spot

London heads the world's 100 top-performing cities in the Resonance Consultancy annual World's Best Cities Report. Dubai comes sixth on the list.

The list is based on each city's performance in the 25 factors analysed, said the leading advisor in tourism, real estate and economic development.

The top ten cities on the list are:

1. London;

2. New York City;

3. Paris;

4. Moscow;

5.Tokyo;

6. Dubai;

7. Singapore;

8. Barcelona;

9. Los Angeles;

10. Madrid, Spain.

Resonance's Best Cities rankings quantify and benchmark the relative quality of place, reputation and competitive identity for the world's principal cities with metropolitan populations of one million or more.

The ranking is lauded as the world's most thorough city ranking, based on original methodology that analyses key statistics as well as user-generated reviews and online activity in channels such as Google, Facebook and Instagram, said the statement.

"The World's Best Cities rankings are composed of experiential factors that people consider most important in choosing a city to live and visit, as well as empirical factors that business decision-makers consider important for business or investment," says Resonance President & CEO Chris Fair.

As a result, Resonance's Best Cities rankings don't just consider cities as places to live, work or visit, but take a more holistic approach using a wide range of factors that show positive correlations with attracting employment, investment and/or visitors. These range from the number of culinary experiences and museums, to the number of Global 500 corporations, direct flight connections and mentions each city has on Instagram.

Why does a ranking matter?

"The data collected for this year's rankings provides a snapshot of the performance of these cities leading into the pandemic," says Fair. "A year from now, we'll be able to look at how Covid-19 has affected each of these cities and see which ones prove to be the most resilient during this crisis."