Sydney’s no stranger to being in the global spotlight — whether for its world-famous beaches, lush green spaces, or incredible natural wonders. And now there’s a new feather in its cap: the city has officially cracked the Top 10 of the Global Cities Index for 2025. This isn’t just another vanity list either; the prestigious index by Oxford Economics ranks the world’s 1,000 biggest cities across five key pillars: economy, human capital, quality of life, environment, and governance. In a major leap from last year, Sydney climbed from 16th to 7th in 2025. Here’s what the report said — and which cities made the Top 10.
Global Cities Index 2025
The report recognised Sydney for being Australia’s financial capital, home to key institutions, as well as having the highest number of corporate headquarters in the country. The report added that its status across Australia and Asia Pacific has long attracted global companies, and although it fell just outside the top 20 for economics, its large GDP, thriving tourism sector, and iconic landmarks helped boost its overall score. Sydney also ranked 10th globally, and 1st nationally, for human capital, thanks to its top-tier universities, highly educated workforce, and one of the highest foreign-born populations in the world.
What really drove Sydney’s leap to seventh place were major gains in the Quality of Life and Environment categories. In 2025, the city’s quality of life ranking soared from 230th to 39th, while its environmental score jumped from 363rd to 145th, a massive leap in both categories.
The report also pointed to some key challenges. Soaring property prices, rising rents, and limited housing supply weighed down Sydney’s score, with housing affordability in particular flagged as a major weakness. The city was also marked down for facing more extreme temperature and rainfall shifts than cities like Melbourne, along with a higher risk of bushfires due to its natural surroundings.
Australia was well represented on the list, with seven cities making the Global Cities Index top 100 for 2025 — Melbourne in sixth place, Brisbane (23rd), Perth (31st), Canberra (52nd), Adelaide (54th), and the Gold Coast (69th)
Here are the top 10 cities in 2025:
- New York
- London
- Paris
- San Jose
- Seattle
- Melbourne
- Sydney
- Boston
- Tokyo
- San Francisco
You can read the full Global Cities Index 2025 report here.