Cleanest Cities in the World

Many different things can be said about what is clean and what makes a city “clean.” A clean city does not always imply that one may eat off the sidewalks or streets.

A clean city may be defined by the absence of litter on the streets, the availability of clean water, or the quality of the air — or all three.

For a city to be clean, the problems that lead to dirty and unhealthy places to live need to be fixed. This involves trash management, building transportation infrastructure that is energy-efficient and environmentally friendly, avoiding littering, and enacting sanitation legislation.

Pollution is a significant aspect of evaluating a city’s cleanliness. Pollution is the release of toxins into the air and environment that have negative consequences.

Air pollution causes lung cancer, cardiovascular illness, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and other major health problems in both the environment and the human body.

There are a lot of variables that contribute to the degree of pollution experienced by cities across the globe. Cities have been working on green programs for numerous years to introduce greener modes of transportation, and procedures, and decrease pollution levels.

In the United States, Congress enacted multiple Clean Air Acts to enact stronger pollution rules, resulting in significant reductions in pollution levels such as carbon dioxide and particle emissions.

Best Life looked at 200 of the world’s most populous cities to see which were the cleanest.

Air pollution levels (both PM10 and PM2.5), Mercer’s quality of life rating, the country’s Environmental Performance Index, and if the city appeared in Monocle’s Quality of Life survey were all considered. Not every city on the list is ranked by Mercer and Monocle.

The world’s cleanest cities (and their clean city ratings) are based on these data points:

• London, England, United Kingdom (74.94)
• Paris, France (74.90)
• New York City, New York, United States (74.89)
• Madrid, Spain (72.66)
• Auckland, New Zealand (71.97)
• Hamburg, Germany (71.32)
• Barcelona, Spain (70.46)
• Berlin, Germany (70.28)
• Vienna, Austria (70.17)
• Sapporo, Japan (68.89)

The cleanest city in the world is London, which is in the United Kingdom. London receives a 74.94 overall clean city score and a 79.89 Environmental Performance Index score.

Following that are Paris and New York City. Many people may be surprised to learn that New York Metropolis is the most populous and densely inhabited city in the United States, with a population of over 8.3 million people and a density of 27,755 people per square mile.

Keeping cities clean is difficult since they house around 55 percent of the world’s population, making them the densely inhabited locations on the planet.

With urban populations predicted to reach 68 percent of the world population in the next several decades, both governments and citizens must work hard to maintain city cleanliness and quality.

Cleanest Cities in the World by Population 2022