Dating in the city is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, cities are packed with enough restaurants, bars and things to do to fill any date night itinerary. And, of course, they’re also packed with people, meaning it’s much easier to cast your dating pool net far and wide and meet someone new (whether on the apps or IRL).
But therein lies the problem: in many cities, having plenty more fish in the sea has led to a culture of disposability. While ghosting, flings and situationships are all part and parcel of dating life in 2025, having endless options to ‘move on to the next’ in the city makes actually finding love that much harder.
It’s not all bad news, though. Ahead of Valentine’s Day, we’ve looked into the cities where locals are finding luck in love.
Every year, we quiz thousands of locals about every aspect of city life, from food and culture to affordability and nightlife, to create our definitive ranking of the world’s best cities. But which of those cities are the best for romance? To find out, we asked city-dwellers one simple question: how easy is it to find love in your city?
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The best city for finding love? Mumbai! A whopping 72 percent of locals reckon it’s easy to find love in India’s largest city. In fact, four Asian cities took the top spots as the most romantic of the bunch, with Beijing, Jakarta and Shanghai following behind Mumbai. New Orleans took the crown as the only US city on the list, and Amsterdam was the only European entry.
How about the other end of the scale? At a measly 14 percent, Bilbao had the lowest percentage of locals who said it’s easy to find love in their city. The US and Australia had two cities each on the list (only 26 percent of locals in Los Angeles and New York think the city’s good for dating, while Brisbane and Sydney had a 28 percent and 29 percent stamp of romantic approval, respectively).
Want to see if your city’s any good for finding love? Here are the full rankings…
The best cities for finding love, according to locals
1. Mumbai, India: 72 percent
2. Beijing, China: 69 percent
3. Jakarta, Indonesia: 66 percent
4. Shanghai, China: 65 percent
5. Colombia, Medellin: 64 percent
6. Abu Dhabi, UAE: 63 percent
7. New Orleans, USA: 56 percent
= Amsterdam, Netherlands: 56 percent
9. Bangkok, Thailand: 54 percent
10. Cape Town, South Africa: 53 percent
The worst cities for finding love, according to locals
1. Bilbao, Spain: 14 percent
2. Tokyo, Japan: 21 percent
3. Hong Kong: 23 percent
4. Marseille, France: 25 percent
5. Los Angeles, USA: 26 percent
= New York City, USA: 26 percent
7. Brisbane, Australia: 28 percent
= London, UK: 28 percent
9. Sydney, Australia: 29 percent
10. Vienna, Austria: 31 percent
Romance aside, there are plenty of other reasons to visit the cities on this list – find out why they all made it on our ranking of the world’s best cities in 2025.
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