In a world recalibrating after a global pandemic, confronting climate urgency, and navigating tectonic geopolitical shifts, European cities are being tested like never before. But within this crucible lies a profound opportunity—to redefine what makes a city not just functional or famous, but magnetic.

At Resonance, our annual Europe’s Best Cities report—now in its third edition—seeks to illuminate this moment of transition. Built on our proprietary Place Power™ Score and enriched this year through a groundbreaking partnership with Ipsos, the 2025 edition explores both how cities perform and how they are perceived. The difference between the two, it turns out, can mean everything.

The Why Behind the Rankings

Europe has always been more than a continent. It’s a constellation of identities, languages, and lived experiences. Today, from the grand capitals of Paris and Berlin to smaller, ascendant hubs like Aarhus and Bratislava, that diversity is being recast as a competitive advantage in a world hungry for place, meaning and belonging.

This year, our research encompassed 128 cities across Europe with metropolitan area populations of 500,000 or more, evaluated on 30 performance indicators and perception metrics derived from surveys of more than 7,500 respondents across 10 European countries. Our Place Power™ Score examines three core dimensions:

• Livability: housing affordability, healthcare access, green space, air quality, and cycling infrastructure
• Lovability: cultural vibrancy, nightlife, culinary scenes, social buzz, and online storytelling
• Prosperity: business environment, talent density, GDP per capita, university strength, and airport connectivity

In a post-pandemic world, these dimensions aren’t siloed. They are interdependent and interlinked. Cities that score highly across all three are, quite literally, magnetic.

Europe’s New Urban Champions

Beyond the capital cities, we found that there are also interesting urban transformations happening in a rising class of dynamic second-tier cities:

• Valencia, celebrated as a European Green Capital, is verifying tourist emissions in real time—a first.
• Utrecht is executing one of Europe’s largest car-free developments, Merwede, redefining sustainability.
• Warsaw boasts Europe’s lowest unemployment and a Top 3 ranking for educational attainment, buoyed by a new national government keen on EU alignment and economic expansion.
• The Ruhr, once synonymous with coal and steel, now ranks in the Top 5 for green space and hosts the 2025 FISU World University Games, showcasing a stunning reinvention.

These cities aren’t just optimizing for today’s livability. They’re hedging for the uncertainties of tomorrow—investing in digital infrastructure, education, and resilient public transport. These decisions may not always grab headlines, but they are reshaping the competitive map.

Perception vs. Performance

But performing well for the underlying metrics that drive livability, lovability and prosperity doesn’t necessarily lead to positive perception and reputation for a city. Our research for this report found that there is only a moderate correlation (0.54) between a city’s performance ranking and its perception ranking. 

While the performance and perception rankings of cities such as Amsterdam, Manchester, London, Milan, Dublin, Barcelona, Paris, Madrid, and Vienna are well aligned, our research shows that there are a number of cities whose perception and reputation lags their performance. Cities such as Sheffield, Luxembourg, The Ruhr, Vilnius, Belfast, Aarhus, Glasgow, Liverpool and Lausanne perform well overall from a performance perspective, but they are not perceived as highly desirable places to live, visit and work.

These are cities of opportunity. 

Why Storytelling is Infrastructure

While physical  infrastructure and quality of place are absolutely key to attracting talent, visitors and investment, it’s narrative that attracts belief: even the best-performing cities won’t achieve their full potential without managing global perception.

Consider cities like Sheffield or Luxembourg, whose performances vastly outpaces how it’s seen by the rest of the world. Bern, Switzerland, is Top 25 for Livability while barely cracking this year’s Top 100 in our Lovability index. These gaps represent untapped ROI. Every untold story is a missed opportunity.

Conversely, cities with strong narrative alignment—like Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Dublin—are enjoying amplified returns. Their stories are told consistently across touchpoints, from digital media to tourism campaigns, from policy to placemaking.

The Global Lessons for City Builders

As we analyze this year’s data and the shifting context around it, four priorities emerge for city leaders across Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and beyond…

1. Measure What Matters: Many cities overlook their perception until a crisis occurs. Make it a routine metric alongside economic KPIs. Go beyond GDP and track livability and perception with equal rigor. Use qualitative and quantitative tools to understand your place in the minds of citizens and outsiders.

2. Close the Gap Between Performance and Perception: This is where the greatest ROI lies. Define your identity. Be bold and consistent in how you show up. Make it a whole-of-city effort, involving economic development, tourism, education, and residents.

3. Build for the People Who Live There: Place identity must be rooted in reality and reflected in everything from zoning policy to festival programming.  Prioritize housing, health, access and community cohesion. Create content strategies rooted in local voices, authenticity, and relevance across platforms.

4. Leverage Data to Design the Future: Use tools like the Place Power™ Score to identify gaps and focus investment. Pair this with insights from global trend analysis to future-proof your strategy.

The Opportunity Ahead

Europe’s cities are confronting daunting headwinds: aging populations, housing crises, and global security threats. But they also possess timeless advantages: rich heritage, walkable density, strong public institutions, and a burgeoning youth-driven cultural economy.

Our rankings reveal more than winners and losers. They offer a blueprint for future readiness. Whether it’s London doubling down on equitable growth, Berlin becoming a cybersecurity capital, or Copenhagen building floating architecture to fight rising tides—Europe is not retreating. It is redefining.

The road ahead demands collaboration, creativity and courage. It demands leaders willing to embrace both storytelling and strategy. As always, the best cities aren’t born—they are built.

We invite you to download the full Europe’s Best Cities 2025 report and start the conversation about how your city can close its gaps, sharpen its story and step into its next chapter. Get in touch and let’s talk.

Here are the Top 10 Europe’s Best Cities in 2025

1. London

2. Paris

3. Berlin

4. Barcelona

5. Rome

6. Madrid

7. Amsterdam

8. Vienna

9. Prague

10. Stockholm

Click here for all Top 100 city profiles.