The use of city proper as defined by administrative boundaries may not include suburban areas where an important proportion of the population working or studying in the city lives. Cities proper and their boundaries and population data may not include suburbs. UNICEF defines city proper as, 'the population living within the administrative boundaries of a city or controlled directly from the city by a single authority.' A city proper is a locality defined according to legal or political boundaries and an administratively recognised urban status that is usually characterised by some form of local government. However, more than 70% of its residents live in rural areas.Ī city can be defined by its administrative boundaries, otherwise known as city proper. You can see the full list of the world’s 53 best cities here, or read on to learn more about the cities that ranked in the top 20.The municipality of Chongqing, China, whose administrative jurisdictional area is around the size of Austria, has the largest population for a city proper. “Now, after a prolonged period of limited travel, the world is opening up and people are itching to get back out there and explore cities again,” he says. It was also voted the number one place people would go if they could move to any other city.Īccording to Gleason, the 2022 list was more focused on what make cities great places to visit, including eating and drinking art, culture and museums and nightlife and party going. It was named the number one city on the list for resilience, as well as number three for art, culture and museums.

But there were enough good things this year to keep NYC in the top 20.

According to Gleason, only 23% of respondents said it’s a friendly city, 93% viewed it as expensive and 61% said it is not relaxing. New York City also had a big drop-down 15 slots from last year, when it was voted number five.

Global ranking of cities