The GOLD Cities are the 50 highest-performing cities in the Happy City Index 2025. This distinction is awarded to cities that demonstrate a consistently strong level of achievement across all six dimensions of the Index, combining governance, quality of life, sustainability and long-term development strategies.

At the same time, the idea behind the Happy City Index is not to reduce urban success to a simple ranking table. We know that people naturally enjoy rankings, comparisons and headline results. They are useful, they attract attention and they help communicate performance clearly. But that is only one part of the story.

The broader purpose of the GOLD group is to promote the cities, policies and solutions that achieve truly remarkable results. In other words, the intention is not merely to say who is above whom, but to draw attention to the approaches that make these cities stand out in practice, especially in the field of social policy and quality of life.

For that reason, the GOLD Cities section is presented in a slightly different way. The cities are listed here in alphabetical order, and the number shown in brackets indicates each city’s place in the overall Index. This format is deliberate. It helps shift the emphasis from competition alone towards interpretation, visibility and learning.

What we want to tell here is the story of 50 cities that stand out globally because of the quality, consistency and maturity of their public policies. These are cities that have managed to combine institutional strength with practical outcomes for residents. They offer examples worth examining more closely, not only because they scored highly, but because they show that better urban development is possible.

The GOLD group should therefore be understood as a collection of global reference points. Together, these cities illustrate different paths towards balanced urban development and provide inspiration for others seeking to strengthen well-being, resilience and the long-term quality of life of present and future generations.