TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taipei has become the eighth happiest city in the world, up from No. 46 last year, reports said Thursday.

The Institute for Quality of Life found the Danish capital Copenhagen was the happiest out of 200 cities reviewed for its annual Happy City Index. The only other Asian cities in the top-30 were Singapore at No. 3 and Seoul at No. 6.

The second Taiwanese city on the list was Hsinchu at No. 75, while Changhua, Kaohsiung, Taichung, Taoyuan, Tainan, Chiayi, and Keelung also featured.

The institute entrusted 150 researchers with rating the cities for factors including education, environmental protection, inclusiveness, healthcare, transportation, and the quality of public service, the China Times reported. The researchers also interviewed residents about their opinions.

The institute divided its list into gold, silver, and bronze cities, with Taipei listed as gold and Hsinchu, Changhua, and Kaohsiung as silver. New Taipei was the only special municipality not featured on the list.

Earlier, the 2025 edition of the World Happiness Report put Taiwan at No. 27 in the world, describing it as the happiest country in East Asia. The country list is published by the Wellbeing Research Center at the University of Oxford in cooperation with pollster Gallup and the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.