SINGAPORE – Singapore has been named the top city in the Asia-Pacific region, based on where people would most like to live and visit, and where they believe they will find the best job opportunities, according to a new study.

The inaugural 2025 Asia-Pacific Best Cities report ranked over 140 cities in the region in three categories – liveability, lovability and prosperity.

Tokyo came in second and Seoul, third. Other cities in the top 10 include Hong Kong (4th), Bangkok (6th) and Sydney (7th).

China had 33 cities in the top 100, the most of any nation, with Beijing (5th) and Shanghai (8th) finishing in the top 10.

Over 7,000 respondents from nine Asia-Pacific countries were surveyed for the study.

Information such as price-to-income ratio and tree cover, as well as user-generated data like Tripadvisor ratings and Google Trends statistics was also taken into consideration. Price-to-income ratio is the ratio of a city’s median apartment price to its median household disposable income.

The study was unveiled on Feb 12 at a lecture organised by the Singapore-based Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC) titled What Makes Cities Liveable and Loveable. Global business consulting firm Resonance partnered market research firm Ipsos to produce the study.

CLC executive director Hugh Lim told The Straits Times the report will be a useful resource for the centre to not only reflect on Singapore’s development, but also learn from what other cities have done. This is in order to continue making Singapore a great place to live in.

Mr Lim added: “We are honoured that Singapore has been ranked at the top of this new report, alongside other Asian cities widely acknowledged for their exemplary urban achievements.”

Resonance also produces the annual World’s Best Cities rankings, in which Singapore came in fifth for the 2025 edition.

The Republic was also recently rated the least corrupt country in the Asia-Pacific region in anti-graft watchdog Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index.

In January, Singapore was crowned the world’s most innovative country, after it topped the Global Innovation Scorecard, which ranks nations based on wide-ranging indicators such as workforce education level and new business creation rate.

The Resonance-Ipsos Asia-Pacific report hailed Singapore’s dynamic retail and dining scenes, its plans for sustainable living and high gross domestic product per capita, among other factors.

Mr Chris Fair, president and chief executive of Resonance, said more than 30 per cent of respondents named Singapore one of the top three Asia-Pacific cities that they would like to live in, visit and where they believe the best job opportunities are found.

He added that Singapore was the city most frequently cited by respondents across all three categories, and by a very wide margin.

This shows Singapore has a very strong brand among people in the region, said Mr Fair.

Singapore placed first in the “prosperity” category, which used metrics such as the number of Fortune Global 500 companies headquartered in the city and its unemployment rate.

In both the “liveability” and “lovability” categories, it was ranked second after Tokyo.

Mr Fair noted that Singapore was 28th according to the study’s performance metrics for “liveability”, but came first in the perception-based data for the same category, thereby pushing it up to second on the liveability front.

He said the challenge for Singapore now lies in accommodating the pressures that may arise from being the most desirable Asia-Pacific city to live, visit and work in, and in sustaining its success.

The report also highlighted Singapore’s commitment to greenery, with 40 per cent of its land dedicated to green spaces.

It further noted Singapore’s exploration of new sustainable living methods, including plans for more green areas, smart urban districts and developments that promote work, education and leisure, such as the Park Connector Network.

Mr Fair told ST that while both the global and Asia-Pacific reports used many of the same metrics, some from the global report were not employed in the Asia-Pacific study, as they were not available for all cities in the region. For instance, how bike-friendly a city’s streets are – a new metric used in the 2025 global study – was not included in the Asia-Pacific report.

In the 2025 global report, London clinched the top place for the 10th consecutive year, ahead of New York (2nd), Paris (3rd) and Tokyo (4th).

When asked why Singapore beat Tokyo to top spot in the Asia-Pacific report despite being ranked a spot behind the Japanese city in the global study, Mr Fair said the global study surveyed respondents from 30 countries across the world, whereas respondents for the Asia-Pacific study came from nine countries in the region.

“So this shows us how the perception of places changes depending on whether you’re looking at it on a regional basis or on a global basis. I would suspect over time, if Singapore is so strong on a regional basis, it will probably overtake Tokyo on a global basis eventually.”

At a panel discussion during the lecture on Feb 12, restaurateur and entrepreneur Sebastian Ang spoke of the need for hybrid spaces that offer unique cultural and social experiences.

He cited his Chinese restaurant and bar Synthesis in Suntec City, which worked with traditional Chinese medicine consultants to create a wellness-themed menu, and offer pulse and tongue readings to customers.

“(Customers) loved it… and we see an increase in millennials and Gen Zs paying more attention to wellness in a different way,” noted Mr Ang. “So I feel that for cities to remain attractive and competitive, we have to adapt to these changing urban experiences.”

He was joined on the panel by Mr Fair; Ms Theresa Sheils, co-regional managing principal at global architecture firm Gensler; Mr Anupam Yog, managing partner at experience design group XDG Labs; and Dr Limin Hee, CLC’s research director. The session was moderated by Lekker Architects director Ong Ker-Shing.

At the Feb 12 event, CLC signed an agreement with WRLDCTY, an annual global forum for urban innovation organised by Resonance, to exchange knowledge and collaborate on creating more liveable, lovable and sustainable cities.

As part of the agreement, WRLDCTY will hold its global conference in Singapore for the first time as part of CLC’s World Cities Summit in June 2026.