Quality of Life in Cities: Insights from the Quality of Life Initiative Pilot Phase offers a data-driven, people-centered assessment of urban well-being across nine cities on five continents. The report presents findings from the first implementation of the Quality of Life Index, developed under the global Quality of Life Initiative, implemented by UN-Habitat and sponsored by the Quality of Life Program in Saudi Arabia. The Index provides a multidimensional framework that combines objective indicators with residents’ perceptions across nine domains: Basic Services and Mobility; Culture and Recreation; Economy; Education; Environment; Governance; Health; Housing; and Social Cohesion; anchored by an overarching Life Satisfaction benchmark indicator.
The pilot engaged nine diverse cities, each of which collected a common set of global indicators and selected additional local indicators through participatory processes. This dual-layer design enables cities to measure factors that are universally important while capturing local priorities and lived experiences. The findings confirm the Index’s conceptual soundness and demonstrate the added value of integrating objective and subjective data, as well as global and local perspectives.
The report highlights distinctive Quality of Life profiles across cities, strong correlations between key indicators, and frequent gaps between objective conditions and residents’ perceptions. Mental wellness emerges as the strongest predictor of Life Satisfaction, while national GDP per capita proves to be an unreliable proxy for urban well-being. The results underscore the need to look beyond economic metrics and to invest in social, environmental, and governance factors that shape everyday life.
By offering a robust evidence base and actionable insights, the report aims to support local and national governments in advancing inclusive, evidence-based urban development and in placing quality of life at the center of sustainable urban policy.
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