Chicago takes 13th spot on World’s Best Cities ranking

The latest city ranking list comes from Resonance, a global branding advisor and consulting firm that just announced its world’s 100 top-performing cities in their annual World’s Best Cities Report.  

Claiming to be lauded as the world's most thorough city ranking, the methodology analyzes key statistics as well as user-generated reviews and online activity on social media channels. The overall Best Cities rankings are determined by analyzing the performance of each city for a wide range of factors that have historically shown positive correlations with attracting employment, investment and/or visitors to cities.

Characterized as “America’s great Midwest metropolis”, the report cites Chicago’s abundance of programming and culture as reasoning for the ranking, alongside deep infrastructure and affordability that eludes many other cities. 

Going into more detail, the report cites the city’s breakout 2022, supported by the fully functional O’Hare airport ranked 5th in number of direct destinations served as well as the return of large conventions and productivity with residents going back to work. 

With additional rankings baked in, Chicago has the 19th most Global 500 headquarters on the planet, is ranked 24th for Sights & Landmarks, 11th best for nightlife, and 28th in restaurants. 

In case you’re interested, the following cities were listed as the Top 10:

1. London, England

2. Paris, France

3. New York City, USA

4. Tokyo, Japan

5. Dubai, United Arab Emirates

6. Barcelona, Spain

7. Rome, Italy

8. Madrid, Spain

9. Singapore, Republic of Singapore

10. Amsterdam, Netherlands

Overall, 13 other U.S. cities were listed including some sister cities for Urbanize. New York City and Los Angeles beat out Chicago for the 3rd and 12th spots respectively. Following behind Chicago, Urbanize cities Seattle finished 39th, Austin placed 43rd, and Atlanta wrapped us up in the 50th spot.