X AXIS →
Y AXIS →
Dot size = overall score · Color = region · Hover for details
This is a subjective ranking. It does not pretend otherwise. What it does claim is that the subjectivity is logically defensible and historically informed — which is more than can be said for most indices that dress editorial judgements in the borrowed authority of algorithms.
It began as a personal attempt to rank Indian cities with some honesty about what makes them actually liveable — not for a tourist passing through, but for a person building a life. It expanded, slowly, to 51 cities across 6 regions. It will keep expanding. It is the work of one person and one AI, not a think tank, not a consultancy, not a government body. No funding was received, no rankings were sold. The scores are argued positions. Disagree with them, but engage with the argument.
The index weights heritage differently from standard rankings — correcting for systematic undervaluation of Dravidian and non-Western civilisational depth. It takes colonial history seriously not as an excuse but as a cause: present ecological scores have historical explanations that matter for understanding what recovery actually requires. It is opinionated about openness, honest about cost, and unimpressed by cities that market themselves aggressively while delivering selectively.
Read the full methodology, version history, naming philosophy, and what this index deliberately doesn't measure ↓This index uses official names as a matter of principle. Thiruvananthapuram, not Trivandrum. Tiruchirappalli, not Trichy. Bengaluru, not Bangalore. Visakhapatnam, not Vizag. Mangaluru, not Mangalore.
Shortening a name because it is long is editorial condescension. Thiruvananthapuram fits on a card the same way Albuquerque does. The city earned every syllable. Colonial cartography routinely simplified and clipped South Asian place names — using the full official name is a small but deliberate correction of that impulse.
Where both the official and former/anglicised name carry distinct cultural weight, both are shown. Chennai that is Madras — both names are in active use across different registers. Madras lives in its institutions: IIT Madras, the Madras High Court, the Madras Music Season. Mumbai carries 1995 onwards; Bombay carries everything before. Calcutta is how Tagore's city is known to the world. These are not redundant names — they are pointing at different time horizons of the same place.
Global (10): Cities operating at world-system scale — financial, cultural, diplomatic, and transport hubs that people across the world orient around. London, NYC, Tokyo, Singapore, Paris, Berlin, Shanghai, Beijing, Mumbai, Delhi.
Metro (17): Major national or regional economic engines with full urban complexity. Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kochi, Seoul, Durban, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Rome, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, São Paulo, Bogotá, Mexico City, Rio.
Regional UG (13): State capitals, regional gateways, significant mid-size anchors that serve as gateways to wider regions. Thiruvananthapuram, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Guwahati, Chongqing, Casablanca, Addis Ababa, Dublin, Washington DC, Seattle, Portland, Toronto.
City (8): Significant cities with strong cultural or economic identity, not regional anchors. Mysuru, Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Coimbatore, Mangaluru, Amritsar, Visakhapatnam, Tripoli.
Tier 2 (3): Nationally significant, limited metropolitan complexity. Jaipur, Lucknow, Surat.
Transport — network coverage, cost as fraction of minimum wage, first/last mile, all-class access. Scored on the median resident's experience, not the showcase corridor.
Public Space — free access, walking distance, shade, class diversity of actual users.
Cleanliness — visible hygiene, drain function, waste in non-showcase areas.
Cost vs Life — PPP-adjusted median rent/wage ratio, public healthcare, food, schooling.
Economy — Scale (size, depth, global reach) averaged with Resilience (sector diversity, shock absorption).
Leisure — entertainment breadth and access across income levels.
Openness — women's safety at night, minority experience, LGBTQ+ rights, press freedom, social mixing.
Heritage — civilisational depth, continuity, living vs museum quality. Bias-corrected for systematic undervaluation of Dravidian and non-Mughal South Asian heritage.
Ecology: river and water body health, groundwater trajectory, green cover change, annual PM2.5 burden. Scored on present reality — the Thames was dead in 1957, and every currently clean Western city followed the same industrialise-accumulate-remediate sequence that was not equally available to post-colonial cities.
Climate: Present Liveability (monthly temperature, humidity burden, smoke months, flood disruption), Trajectory (sea level risk, groundwater stress, temperature trend), and Government Policy (C40 compliance, emissions trajectory, adaptation spend, political durability) — each one third. Policy and present liveability are weighted equally: they influence each other over the long term.
Governance trajectory — direction of travel matters as much as current position.
Social mobility — can someone born poor in this city realistically improve their position?
Food systems access — quality and affordability across income levels.
Built environment as climate mitigation — how well does transit, shade, and public space design help residents live with the climate a city has? Covered walkways and metro connectivity in Chennai mean you can move through a 37°C humid day without being in it. Delhi's wide arterial roads with no shade cover make a 42°C day worse than the temperature alone suggests. Planned for v12–v14.
| Version | Cities | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| v1–v4 | 22 | Indian city index, methodology developed |
| v5a/b | 51 | Global expansion: Asia, Africa, Europe, Americas |
| v6 | 51 | Combined index, scatter and centroid views |
| v7a | 51 | Climate dimension: present liveability + trajectory |
| v7b | 51 | Government climate policy scoring. Intro added. |
| v10 | 51 | Official names restored. 5-tier classification. Transport scores revised. Naming philosophy documented. |
| v8 | 51 | Multi-region comparison mode (planned) |
| v12–v14 | TBD | Built environment as climate mitigation (planned) |