Move over, Melbourne millennials – Gen Z (you know, those born between 1997 and 2012) have well and truly stepped into the spotlight, and they've got thoughts on the best cities for young people right now.
Every year, Time Out releases its annual ranking of the world's greatest cities (ICYMI, Melbourne was named the world's fourth best). This comprehensive survey quizzes more than 18,500 locals on everything from their city's nightlife, food and culture, as well as important lifestyle factors like happiness, access to green space and walkability. These insights were then filtered to include only responses from those aged 30 and under, revealing which city is best for Gen Z in 2025.
And, drum roll please... Melbourne has landed in second place (slay!), beating out zoomer hot spots like Barcelona, Edinburgh and Mexico City. According to the data, 77 per cent of Gen Z described Melbourne as diverse and inclusive, with a whopping 96 per cent giving high ratings to the city’s art and culture scene. Our beloved city also scored highly for quality of life, with an impressive 91 per cent of twenty-somethings saying the quality of life in Melbourne is ‘good’ or ‘amazing’.
To dive a bit deeper, we reached out to our Gen Z audience via Instagram to discover exactly what they love most about Melbourne – and yep, the responses well and truly confirmed the global findings. The most common answer was just how multicultural our city is, with Melbourne's café culture also getting plenty of mentions (given how twenty-somethings are gravitating towards ‘third spaces’ that offer a matcha-fuelled antidote to nightlife fatigue, we're not surprised in the slightest). Street art, sport, the electronic music scene, theatre and how safe the city is were also specified.
So, which city beat out Melbourne to snag the top spot for Gen Zs? It was none other than Bangkok. The Thai capital took the crown thanks to its stand-out scores in happiness (84 per cent of Gen Z say they’re happy living there) and affordability (71 per cent say it’s a budget-friendly city to live in). Rounding out the top five behind Melbourne were Cape Town, New York City and Copenhagen. The only other Aussie city to make the global top 20 list was Sydney, coming in at 11th.
These are the world's best cities for Gen Z in 2025
1. Bangkok, Thailand
2. Melbourne, Australia
3. Cape Town, South Africa
4. New York City, United States
5. Copenhagen, Denmark
6. Barcelona, Spain
7. Edinburgh, United Kingdom
8. Mexico City, Mexico
9. London, United Kingdom
10. Shanghai, China
11. Sydney, Australia
12. Beijing, China
13. Paris, France
14. Tokyo, Japan
15. Berlin, Germany
16. Seville, Spain
17. Chicago, United States
18. Chiang Mai, Thailand
19. Prague, Czech Republic
20. Lisbon, Portugal
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