Las Vegas ranked 89th among the world's top 1,000 cities in the 2026 Global Cities Index released by British firm Oxford Economics, rising seven places from last year's 96th position. The index evaluates cities across five categories: economics, human capital, quality of life, environment, and governance.
Lead economist Barbara Denham attributed the improvement to stronger economic and environmental scores. "Las Vegas's rankings improved from 96 to 89 overall. This was due to its improved economic score slash ranking and environment ranking," she said via email. "For the economic ranking, its GDP growth rate was the prime source, for the environment score, Las Vegas improved across most of the measures as it has had little in the way of temperature or rain anomalies."
New York topped the overall ranking, followed by London, Paris, Seattle, San Francisco, and Dublin. Las Vegas placed just behind Hong Kong and Lyon, France, and ahead of Manchester, England, and Reykjavik, Iceland. Within North America, the metro area ranked 31st.
Other recent rankings offer a mixed picture. Research firm Resonance placed Las Vegas seventh among U.S. cities, ahead of larger metros including Dallas, Houston, and Boston. However, a WalletHub study ranked Nevada 45th out of 50 states for livability, citing a crime rate above the national average and poor scores for healthcare and education.
Sources: Las Vegas Review-Journal
Original reporting: Las Vegas Review-Journal →
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