Singapore Tops First Asia-Pacific Best Cities Report

Study ranks cities based on where people would like to live, visit and seek jobs

- Wong Yang

Singapore has been named the top city in the Asia-Pacific region, based on where people would most like to live and visit, and where they believe they will find the best job opportunities, according to a new study.

The inaugural 2025 Asia-Pacific Best Cities report ranked over 140 cities in the region in three categories – liveability, lovability and prosperity.

Tokyo came in second and Seoul, third. Other cities in the top 10 include Hong Kong (4th), Bangkok (6th) and Sydney (7th).

China had 33 cities in the top 100, the most of any nation, with Beijing (5th) and Shanghai (8th) finishing in the top 10.

Over 7,000 respondents from nine Asia-Pacific countries were surveyed for the study.

Information such as price-to-income ratio and tree cover, as well as user-generated data like TripAdvisor ratings and Google Trends statistics was also taken into consideration. Price-to-income ratio is the ratio of a city’s median apartment price to its median household disposable income.

The study was unveiled on Feb 12 at a lecture organised by the Singapore-based Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC) titled What Makes Cities Liveable and Loveable. Global business consulting firm Resonance partnered market research firm Ipsos to produce the study.

CLC executive director Hugh Lim told The Straits Times the report will be a useful resource for the centre to not only reflect on Singapore’s development, but also learn from what other cities have done.

Resonance also produces the annual World’s Best Cities rankings, in which Singapore came in fifth for the 2025 edition.