The top 250 happiest cities in the world have been revealed – and five Australian locations made the list.

European cities dominated The Institute of Quality of Life’s 2024 Happy City Index, with Denmark’s second-largest city Aarhus taking the top spot.

Although less well known than the country’s capital Copenhagen, Aarhus’ origins date back more than 1000 years to a Viking settlement.

The current population of about 335,000 enjoy the city’s diverse range of offerings such as historic sites, art exhibitions and proximity to picturesque forests.

Combined with Denmark’s free public health care scheme, low unemployment rate and generally high social wellbeing, it’s easy to see why Aarhus ranked well.

The city offers a mix of old and modern architecture. Photo: Getty

Gold rating

However, the Institute of Quality of Life emphasised that a happy city meant something different to every resident in it, so it was “not fair to establish a single city-leader”.

Instead, the top 37 ranked cities were simply ranked in the ‘gold’ category, although they were listed in order of highest to lowest scores.

The cities with the third and second-highest scores, respectively, were Switzerland’s Zurich and Germany’s Berlin.

Zurich ranked higher in terms of citizens, governance, economy and mobility, while Berlin did better in the environment category.

Australian story

Brisbane, at No. 21, was the only Australian city to achieve a ‘gold’ ranking.

The Queensland capital fell between Norway’s Alesund at No.20 and Belgium’s Bruges at No.22.

Known for its balmy weather, beaches, diverse food scene and bike-friendly streets, Brisbane’s highest-ranking categories were mobility, economy and governance.

The next three Australian entrants in the Happy City Index ranked within the ‘silver’ category, meaning they ranked between 38 and 100.

Melbourne came in at No.41, followed by Perth at No.61 and Hobart at No.87.

Sydney fell out of the top 100 to sit in the ‘bronze’ section at No.116.

Christchurch, which was New Zealand’s highest-ranked city at No.32, also achieved a ‘gold’ ranking.

How cities were ranked

The Institute of Quality of Life said it based annual rankings on the most important factors that have a direct impact on happiness; citizens, governance, environment, economy and mobility.

Areas of interest ranged from the educational system, to social inclusion of residents, to waste, wastewater management and recycling.

The rankings did not include cities with small populations, for which living conditions could not be assessed or with data that was not objective.

“We know that happiness is determined by many different factors,” The Institute of Quality of Life’s website stated.

“Every year, we make every effort to objectively and reliably assess what is most important for city dwellers and on this basis assess the sense of happiness. This equally helps us to narrow down the definition of the term happiness.

“We do this on the basis of the analysis of objective information, open data and interviews conducted with residents … This procedure allowed us to distinguish and thus evaluate cities against 24 different areas of activity, divided into five key categories.”

Interestingly, no city from the Dominican Republican was included in the index despite the country found to have the highest average mental wellbeing earlier this year; Australia had the sixth-lowest score on the same ranking.