The best cities to live in Poland 2026. For the first time in history, two leaders [RANKING]
After a six-month break, we are back with the updated Business Insider Polska ranking, in which we compare 16 cities in terms of three key economic indicators and three non-financial aspects. It turns out that the winner of several previous editions returns to the leader's seat, but for the first time he shares the top step of the podium with another city. Warsaw has never been so high on the list.
As usual, we took into account both hard data and how cities are coping with the key challenges of recent years. The results may be surprising, because in several places there were spectacular promotions and non-obvious changes.
Read also in BUSINESS INSIDER
In Business Insider, we collected key numbers from 16 cities (one from each voivodeship) describing status at the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026 We took a closer look at the numbers unemployment, wages and second-hand housing prices. Additionally, we compared aspects important for overall life satisfaction, such as: access to doctors, crime and air quality.
In the previous edition of the ranking of the best cities to live in, which described the state as of mid-2025, Katowice was the herowhich jumped to the leading position. Previously, they were just behind the podium. Thanks to the promotion, the capital of the Silesian Voivodeship overtook Poznań, Rzeszów and Gdańsk.
The rest of the article is below the video
Now the podium composition is the same, but there has been a complete change in terms of the places occupied. Katowice fell to third place, and number one with the same rating are: Poznań and Rzeszów. The capital of Podkarpacieunlike the capital of Greater Poland, has not yet been at the top, so it should be considered as one hero this edition of the ranking of the best cities to live in.
Ratings improved significantly Warsaw. However, it dropped significantly down the rankings Gdańskwho had been on the podium several times before. Kielce tops the table for the first timewhich at the very bottom of the table are from Krakow and Wrocław and Gorzów Wielkopolski (both cities have the same result).
The best cities to live in our ranking turned out to be: Poznań and Rzeszów. Kielce is the worst. The more points for a given city, the worse it is (the sum of places in six ranking categories)
|
Michał Rogalski / Onet
To clarify, the points assigned to cities on the map above are the sum of the ranking places occupied by these cities in the six analyzed categories. The lower the value, the better. In theory, it is possible for one city to take first place in all six categories – then it would have a total of 6 points. Practice shows that there is no ideal. We discuss the details later in the article.
Which city is the best to live in Poland?
Where is the best place to live? Rzeszów is number one in our ranking for the first time. The capital of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship boasts the lowest crime rate. It is also at the bottom of the podium in terms of residents' access to doctors.
There is room for improvement primarily in two aspects: housing availability and unemployment. Out of the 16 analyzed cities, Rzeszów ranks 10th and 12th, respectively.
See also: Poles about the economy. The latest survey paints a sad picture
What is the biggest problem of Rzeszów, for… Poznań is the most important positive differentiator. The capital of Greater Poland boasts the lowest unemployment rate. In most other categories he is average (places 5-8). The final assessment is most severely underrated by air quality – only three cities fare worse in this respect.
Behind the leaders are two more cities with an equal number of ranking points: Katowice and Lublin. Their loss to the leaders is small (2 points). The capital of the Silesian Voivodeshipwhich won the ranking six months ago, still offers residents the best access to apartments (in terms of price-to-earnings ratio), but is no longer the leader in average wages (dropping to 4th position). It also dropped three places in the ranking describing air quality (it was at the very bottom).
See also: Here are the best cities for real estate investors. One is from Poland
It advanced four places compared to the previous ranking Lublin. It owes its high position primarily to the shortest queues to doctors in the National Health Fund. It is also among the top three cities with the lowest crime rate. Cons? Only three cities fare worse in terms of unemployment. Salaries also leave a lot to be desired compared to larger cities.
The places occupied by cities in particular categories differ significantly
|
Michał Rogalski / Onet
Which cities are the best to live in? The biggest surprises
There are a few surprises in the latest edition of the ranking. Residents may be in a better mood Warsaw. The capital, despite its great business potential, regularly ranked near the bottom of the top ten. This time moved up to 5th place. Although it is not number one in any category, it is second in two (unemployment and wages). Warsaw recorded significant progress in air quality and took advantage of the fact that the top of the ranking reduced flights with ranking points.
See also: How much do you need to earn to buy an apartment in 2026? The amounts may be shocking
Lublin, described earlier, also deserves applause for its progress.
A negative surprise can be said mainly in the case of Gdańsk, which dropped from 5th to 8th position – the lowest in 2.5 years. However, this is not only the result of a significant regression in the statistics of the capital of Pomerania (although in several cases it records drops by single positions), but also of improvements in the results of competitors.
Not the best cities to live in. Business Insider ranking
It is weak but stable in the three cities closing the ranking. Kraków has moved up from last place half a year agopushing Kielce to the very end. The strongest advantage of living in the capital of Małopolska is the highest salaries and relatively low unemployment, but at the same time you have to accept that the apartments are very expensive, the air quality is not good and crime is a problem.
See also: More apartments for less. Only in some districts prices are falling
On the other hand Kielce it is a city that is not the worst in any of the six analyzed categories, and does not even occupy the last two positions. So why does the capital of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship perform so poorly? He is an average person, but rather one of the lower rated ones. In statistics, it looks best in terms of residents' access to doctors (6th position), and in typical economic categories it ranks in the second ten rankings.
The best cities to live in. Ranking methodology
Finally, a few words of explanation about where we got the data for the ranking. There is no room for discretion here. All statistics come from official sources. They are regularly published by trusted institutions and are widely accessible. We are talking about numbers from the Central Statistical Office (unemployment, average salary, crime, number of inhabitants), the National Health Fund (queues for doctors, summarized by the website swiatprzychodni.pl), the Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection (air quality) and the Morizon website (housing prices).
Due to the availability of data on apartment prices, Gorzów Wielkopolski is included in the ranking as the representative of the Lubuskie Voivodeship instead of Zielona Góra, which is a slightly larger city. In the case of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, the choice fell on Bydgoszcz, not Toruń, because the former city is simply larger.
We use simplifications in the descriptions of some results. If we refer to the availability of apartments, this term should be understood as the ratio of the average price of second-hand apartments in a given city to the average salary of residents in that area.
We based the “availability of doctors” category on the example of the average number of days a patient waits to see doctors from 10 popular specializations covered by the National Health Fund (allergist, dermatologist, gastroenterologist, gynecologist, cardiologist, laryngologist, neurologist, ophthalmologist, orthopedist and urologist). In turn, we measure the crime level by the number of all detected crimes per number of inhabitants over a longer period (this edition covers the period from January 1 to September 30, 2025).
In turn, the indicator used to measure air quality is PM10 suspended dust and its average amount over the last 12 months (this time we took into account the period from January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2025).
The best cities to live in. Continued
In this article, we described the most important conclusions regarding the city ranking without providing detailed data, because there are so many of them. What do the detailed air quality numbers look like in all 16 cities? How many months do you have to wait to see a doctor? Where has unemployment fallen and what payments do residents of the city with the highest salaries receive? Tables with a full list and description for each category can be found in second part of the ranking.
Author: Damian Słomski, journalist of Business Insider Polska
