Well-established European cities dominated the list, mostly thanks to low levels of income inequality which is intrinsically linked to other metrics including crime, education, health and affordability.The "people" sub-index set out to find the city with the highest quality of life by rating eight metrics:
- Health (life expectancy and obesity)
- Education (literacy and universities)
- Income inequality
- Work-life balance
- Crime
- Green space within cities
- Housing and living costs
- Dependency ratio