Second edition / 2026
City Human Potential Ranking 2026
How well do cities help people learn, find decent work, and participate in digital life?
2026 at a glance
100
Cities
47
Countries
3
Domains
170
Primary metrics
01 Results
The leading cities
Explore the published top 10 overall and in each of the three domains. The study covers cities in BRICS+ member and partner countries, as well as countries that cooperate with the group.
| Rank | City |
|---|---|
| 01 | Moscow |
| 02 | Singapore |
| 03 | Hong Kong |
| 04 | Beijing |
| 05 | Shanghai |
| 06 | Seoul |
| 07 | Istanbul |
| 08 | Abu Dhabi |
| 09 | Mexico City |
| 10 | São Paulo |
Source: City Human Potential Ranking 2026, pp. 19–22.
Moscow
Moscow also leads in education and digital technologies and places third in the labor market.
02 Regional spotlight
Latin America in the top 10
Mexico City and São Paulo were the two Latin American cities in the overall top 10.
Mexico City
Mexico City returns to the top 10 after placing there in the inaugural 2023 edition. The project brief highlights its concentration of digital infrastructure, including UNAM, and App CDMX, which brings government and transportation services into one app.
São Paulo
São Paulo ranks fourth in education, behind Moscow, Singapore, and Seoul.
03 Methodology
What the ranking measures
CHPR considers both the capabilities residents bring to a city and the opportunities that local institutions and infrastructure give them to develop and use those capabilities.
Education
Access to higher and lifelong education, educational infrastructure, and equity of opportunity.
19 composite indicators
Labor Market
Youth employment, decent work, new forms of employment, and support for research and innovation.
9 composite indicators
Digital Technologies
Digital infrastructure, use of digital city services, and efforts to close gaps in digital access.
5 composite indicators
Each domain carries equal weight.
The study prioritizes official statistics and publicly accessible, verifiable sources. It normalizes 143 working indicators and uses expert-assigned weights for the 29 composite indicators within their domains. The overall score is the average of the three domain scores.
04 Research team
The team behind CHPR
Universidad Panamericana launched the ranking. The Guadalajara campus led the 2026 edition in collaboration with researchers from four other universities.
Guillermo Sosa-Gómez
Universidad Panamericana, Guadalajara, Mexico
Coauthors
Magdalena Alejandra Gaete-Sepúlveda
HSE University, St. Petersburg, Russia
Juan F. Córdoba-Marentes
Universidad de La Sabana, Colombia
Miguel Angel Esquivias Padilla
Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia
Haliyana Khalid
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia
05 Full report
Download the 2026 report
Get the complete second edition, including the methodology, indicator weights, and published ranking tables.
Download the full reportPDF · 26 pages · 2.9 MB
