Every six months in Business Insider we publish a ranking of the best Polish cities to live. And how does our whole country fall in similar categories against the background of the world? About 200 countries can be distinguished in total. The most important almost a hundred of them is part of the project titled “Qualy of Life Index” (quality indicator) from Numbeo. Every six months statistics regarding: purchasing power, level of pollution, accessibility of the price of apartments, living costs, safety, quality of healthcare, travel time to work and climatic conditions.
In the latest editions of the Quality of Life Index 2025 Poland takes 37th place. This means promotion by two positions compared to the previous ranking from half a year ago and even greater progress per year – from 42 place.
See also: This country is a Polish twin brother. Who has better prospects?
Poland in the latest hair edition It is ahead of Singapore and South Africa, and Slovakia and Cyprus are immediately in front of our country. In the list behind our backs there are several large, developed countries. Among them include Italy and Greece. However, we are worse than e.g. Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Croatia.
Own study based on numbeo.com data; table generated with chatagpt
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Damian Słomski / Business Insider
Polish strengths in the ranking
Among the strengths of Poland in the ranking include: security, the issue of travel to work, purchasing power and housing prices for income. In these categories, our country occupied higher positions than in total.
Poland takes 22nd place in terms of security. This is the result of surveys regarding the general level of crime. They relate to fears on the occasion of walks during the day and night, the number of seizures, robberies, theft of cars, physical attacks, etc. Just behind our country is Austria and Slovakia in this respect. The Netherlands and Finland are directly sold out.
The quality of life indicator overstates the issue of travel to work. 30 countries have higher ratings than Poland. For example, Belarus, which is right in front of us, was also rated, also Serbia with a similar result. We are slightly ahead of New Zealand and Italy. This category includes factors such as travel time, dissatisfaction with the time spent in traffic jams, CO2 emissions and general traffic failure.
In key financial relative to – We took the purchasing power of the purchasing power. We are ahead of the Czech Republic and Italy directly in this respect, and the fourth ten opens Spain and Singapore. According to numbeo statistics, the relative purchasing power in Poland based on the average net salary is at the level of about 94 percent. the result for New York. Number one in the entire statement is a runny nose, in which this relationship is at the level of almost 186 percent.
Although Poles complain strongly about the prices of apartments, in the ranking also taking into account the income of citizens we occupy the 35th place. Interestingly, the creators of the ranking in this category awarded us exactly the same number of points as Switzerland.
Own study based on numbeo.com data; Graphics generated with chatagpt
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Business Insider
The weaknesses of Poland in the ranking
The weaknesses of Poland in the ranking include: health protection, climate, air quality and living costs. In these categories, our country occupied lower positions than in total.
In terms of health protection, Poland is only 67th among 88 analyzed countries. We were assessed like Bulgaria. We are ahead of Tunisia and Cyprus, and Slovakia and Kuwait are immediately ahead of us. Such a poor estimated assessment applies to the overall quality of the healthcare system, including factors such as healthcare employees, equipment, staff, doctors and costs.
The results in the general ranking also lower the climate. We have been ordered in this respect in the 57th position with geographically close to us: Latvia and Estonia. The respondents took into account the temperature, humidity and weather conditions as well as their impact on their daily work and life.
We are in terms of air quality compared to other countries in the world, although we are talking about a distant 41 place. This includes factors such as air and water pollution, garbage disposal, cleanliness, noise, green areas. Number one in this respect is Finland, just before Poland, Cyprus and Italy ranks, followed by Panama and South Africa.
At the beginning of the fifth tens of Poland is also in terms of living costs. Special indicators that measures this refers to New York, with a base index of 100 % for this city. Indicates relative prices of consumer goods, such as foodstuffs, refers to restaurants, transport and media. Does not include accommodation expenditure such as rent or mortgage. For example, it is estimated that the city with an indicator of maintenance costs of 120 is 20 percent. more expensive than New York. Our country has a result of 39 percent, which means that more or less the costs of living are 60 percent. lower. In this category, mainly less developed countries gain, and the table is closed by the most expensive Switzerland.
The best countries to live
Luxembourg turns out to be the best country to live in analyzed categories. He has definitely the highest note, ahead of the Netherlands and Denmark.
Interestingly, Luxembourg is on the podium only in terms of purchasing power, and for example in the case of security it is worse than Poland. In terms of living costs, it is in 9th position, achieving almost exactly the same result as the USA. The Netherlands and Denmark are a little higher.
The strength of Denmark, which conquers its ranking, are relatively low housing prices for income. In turn, the Netherlands is praised for the lack of tiring inhabitants of traffic jams.
Just behind the podium there was a fairly unobvious country – Omanrepresenting the Arab world. It is an absolute monarchy and the head of state is the sultan. The country is known for moderate foreign policy and stability in the Middle East. Oman's economy is mainly based on the export of crude oil and gas, although the government pursues the policy of diversification, developing, among others Tourism, fishing and logistics.
The TOP 10 ranking is numerous representation of Scandinavian countries.
Author: Damian Słomski, Business Insider Polska journalist
