Quality of life in European cities

Additional tools

What city is the cleanest or the safest? In which city is easy to find a job or a house? Which city has the best public transport or air quality? Answers to these questions and many more can be found in the latest Report on the Quality of life in European Cities, 2020. This report summarises the results of the 5th survey of European cities, which covers 83 cities and was carried out in 2019.

The new Quality of life in European cities survey provides a unique insight into city life. It gathers the experiences and opinions of city dwellers across Europe. It shows that people living in northern EU cities are the most satisfied with their city, but satisfaction in eastern EU cities is increasingly rapidly. People living in a large city are more satisfied with public transport, but those living in smaller cities feel safer when walking alone at night.

Most people think their city is a good place for minorities, but in some cities less than half the residents think this is the case. For the first time, the survey includes questions about the quality of the city administration. For example, half of the city residents think there is corruption in their city administration, but in the worst cities four in five think this is the case compared to only one in five in the best cities.

The interactive maps and spider charts are another novelty. Below people can select the questions they want to see on a map and they can select for which city they want to see an overview of how it compares the average city and the best and the worst city in the survey. Both maps and charts can be downloaded.

Under the maps and spider charts, you will find addition information, including all the maps and charts of the questions used in the report, the data, the full questionnaire and a technical report on the survey.

Please send your comments to REGIO-B1-PAPERS@ec.europa.eu.