
Would you say you’re ‘happy’ in Bristol? There’s a lot to like about this city: green spaces, colourful houses, calming waters. Then again, there’s lots of room for improvement too – we won’t go into detail here and bring the mood down, but you know… On the whole, however, we’re pretty happy in this city.
Still, even we’re surprised to see Bristol rank so highly on The Insititute For Quality Of Life’s ‘Happy City Index’ for 2024. Bristol is one of 37 global cities to feature – which includes Brisbane, Copenhagen and Seoul. But rather than single out one ‘happiest city’, the whole group of cities has been labelled as ‘Golden Cities’.
The Insititute For Quality Of Life says:
It is most appropriate to establish a group of cities committed to happiness cultivation and growth, where education, inclusive policies, economy, mobility, environmental protection, access to green areas or innovation are not only important components of the official policies created, but are also visible in the implemented solutions, tangible for the residents and have a direct impact on their quality of life.
What it fails to disguise, however, is that each city receives a total happiness score. This is based on five ‘themes’ – citizens, governance, environment, economy and mobility. There’s A LOT of detail and research that defines each theme, and we don’t want to bog you down. Check that out here.
We will note that ‘mobility’ was comparatively weaker compared to other golden cities – such as intelligent transport systems, mobile applications and other solutions to improving traffic. Where we scored well was ‘economy’ (hard data determined by GDP) and ‘governance’ (which more loosely relies on involving residents in the decision-making processes in the city).
Overall, a total score of 1709,8 puts Bristol as the seventh happiest city in the world. Just behind Aarhus, Zurich, Berlin, Gothenburg, Amsterdam and Helsinki. Only two other UK cities also featured among these ‘Golden Cities’ – Edinburgh (1667,8) and London (1619,8).
The Insititute For Quality Of Life’s Golden “Happiest” Cities:
- Aarhus, Denmark
- Zurich, Switzerland
- Berlin, Germany
- Gothenburg, Sweden
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Helsinki, Finland
- Bristol, United Kingdom
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Geneva, Switzerland
- Munich, Germany
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Rotterdam, Netherlands
- Oulu, Finland
- Vienna, Austria
- Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- Reykjavik, Iceland
- Aalborg, Denmark
- Minneapolis (Minnesota), United States
- Basel, Switzerland
- Alesund, Norway
- Brisbane, Australia
- Bruges, Belgium
- Luxembourg, Luxembourg
- Bordeaux, France
- Cork, Ireland
- Cologne, Germany
- Eskilstuna, Sweden
- Utrecht, Netherlands
- Innsbruck, Austria
- Espoo, Finland
- Osaka, Japan
- Christchurch, New Zealand
- London, United Kingdom
- Singapore, Singapore
- Jonkoping, Sweden
- Seoul, South Korea
- Ottawa, Canada
To see the full rankings of happy cities head here.