This won\u2019t come as a surprise, but it\u2019s now official (again): Chicago is one of the best cities in the world.<\/p>\n
Time Out has just revealed its rankings of the world\u2019s 50 best cities in 2026<\/a>, and Chicago lands at No. 41.\u00a0As locals already know, the city offers something in every season\u2014whether it\u2019s festive Christmas markets in winter, genre-spanning music festivals in summer or a deep bench of\u00a0world-class museums<\/a> and cultural\u00a0attractions<\/a> year-round.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s before we even get to the food. Chicago\u2019s dining scene<\/a> runs the gamut from Michelin-starred temples of fine dining to beloved no-frills neighborhood joints. Sure, the city is famous for icons like\u00a0deep dish pizza<\/a>,\u00a0Chicago-style hot dogs<\/a>\u00a0and Italian beef<\/a>\u2014but the real story is the sheer range of cuisines and restaurants that make eating here a daily adventure.<\/p>\n To determine the 2026 Best Cities ranking, we surveyed more than 24,000 residents across 150 global destinations, evaluating metrics like affordability, food scene, livability and overall vibe. We then combined these insights with the expertise of over 100 Time Out city experts.\u00a0<\/p>\n Crunching the data, community stands as one of Chicago\u2019s biggest draws.\u00a0Seventy percent of locals shared that they feel a sense of belonging in the city, while 68% described Chicago as diverse, friendly and welcoming.\u00a0Chicago also received a 94% approval rating for its food and art scenes\u2014the third-highest of all cities surveyed.<\/p>\n Topping the 2026 rankings is Melbourne, Australia, followed by Shanghai, Edinburgh and London. Chicago is among just a few North American cities that made the cut, joined by New York (No. 5), San Francisco (No. 46) and Vancouver (No. 47).<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the only recent global Time Out list that has honored Chicago. Avondale was No. 5<\/a> in our rankings of the coolest neighborhoods in the world in 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This won\u2019t come as a surprise, but it\u2019s now official (again): Chicago is one of the best cities…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":650219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[10336,960,5386,1818,10337,1072],"class_list":["post-650218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-categories-things-to-do","tag-chicago","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-news-city-life","tag-things-to-do"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116216106373229749","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}