Bucharest among most unhappy cities in the world, study says

Bucharest is among the most unhappy cities in the world, placing in 247th place out of 251 cities analyzed in the 2026 edition of the Happy City Index, one of the most extensive studies on urban quality of life, G4media.ro reported.

The Happy City Index is a complex indicator of quality of life. The ranking builds on the work of 466 researchers and takes into account several essential criteria: governance, economy, environment, mobility, health, and residents’ level of satisfaction. The analysis is based on dozens of indicators and hundreds of thousands of data points collected globally, making the results relevant for international comparisons.

From an initial pool of more than 3,400 cities worldwide, nearly 1,000 cities were selected for deeper analysis in the Index.

“While the formal ranking covers 250 cities, the 251st place has been assigned to Kyiv without scoring or comparison, as a mark of respect for the efforts of Ukrainian city authorities under extraordinarily difficult circumstances,” the authors of the Index said.

Bucharest obtained 4904 points in the ranking and was surpassed in terms of happiness by almost all major European cities. The city’s position indicates structural problems affecting daily life: infrastructure, traffic, pollution, and public services.

The top positions were occupied by cities from Northern Europe and economically developed regions. Copenhagen, Helsinki, and Geneva lead the ranking, being considered models of balance between the economy, the environment, and quality of life.

At the opposite end were Kuching (Malaysia), Chicago (US), and Aguascalientes (Mexico), followed by Tucson (US) and Indianapolis (US). The authors of the Index emphasized that there is no “perfect city,” but there are development models that can be replicated.

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