Moldova’s capital, Chisinau, ranks 443rd in the 2026 Global Cities Index compiled by Oxford Economics. In the ranking of 1,000 cities, Chisinau is preceded by Bari, Italy, in 442nd place and followed by Kota Bharu, Malaysia, in 444th.
The ranking assesses five key aspects of urban life: economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. Chisinau performs best in economics, ranking 351st, followed by environment in 404th place and quality of life in 437th. Its weakest results are in human capital, where it ranks 619th, and governance, where it ranks 518th, placing both indicators in the bottom 40% of the ranking.
New York, London and Paris occupy the top three positions. The top 10 also includes Seattle, San Francisco, Dublin, Boston, San Jose, Tokyo and Zurich.
Chisinau ranks below several other regional capitals. Budapest is 111th, Sofia 303rd, Kyiv 304th and Moscow 313th. Moldova’s capital, however, ranks ahead of Odesa, which is in 605th place.
The ranking shows that US cities perform particularly strongly in economics and human capital, while European cities benefit from stronger results in quality of life, environment and governance.
At the bottom of the ranking are cities in China, Haiti, India and Nigeria. Sokoto, Nigeria, ranks last, in 1,000th place.
According to Oxford Economics, Asian cities could become increasingly important in the coming years as economic growth and rising productivity contribute to improvements in living standards.