Dublin has ranked 6th overall in the 2026 Global Cities Index produced by Oxford Economics out of 1,000 cities worldwide. Dublin’s high ranking is attributed to its economic performance, human capital, environmental conditions, and stable institutions, despite housing being shown as a serious weakness.
Dublin ranked highest at 9th in the Environment category. The report said, “The city benefits from a temperate climate, low pollution levels, and ambitious climate initiatives, with a goal of climate neutrality by 2030.” It ranks lowest at 90th in quality of life, with housing costs described as a key challenge. This placed the city in the bottom quartile globally for the category.
Aside from low emissions relative to other cities globally, the index mentions access to top-tier institutions like Trinity and a high GDP per capita as key strengths. The authors, however, acknowledge that this “can be misleading” as multinational corporations inflate the figure and it doesn’t reflect “underlying economic health.”
The top 5 cities in the index that rank above Dublin are New York, London, Paris, Seattle and San Francisco, respectively. All but Paris outperformed Dublin in Economics, while Dublin ranked far higher in Governance at 58th, with the closest being London at 140th and the furthest being Paris at 317th. Copenhagen came first in this category.
Dublin also outranked the cities above it in the list in the environment category. However, it came in behind eight other cities, including Honolulu, Fortaleza, and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
