Best warm-climate cities to live in

Mild winters, plenty of sun — ranked by overall livability, not just temperature.

68 cities ranked

Overview

Lisbon tops our ranking of best warm-climate cities to live in at 7.6/10, just ahead of Malaga and Gold Coast. Choosing where to live is easier with numbers in front of you than with a gut feeling. Best warm-climate cities to live in is exactly that: a data-driven answer, not a listicle opinion. Mild winters, plenty of sun — ranked by overall livability, not just temperature. We started from 303 cities worldwide and narrowed the field to the 68 that fit this lifestyle, then re-weighted our usual seven criteria to reflect what this audience typically prioritizes. Average safety across this list sits at 6.3/10 and average climate at 8.1/10 — both well above a random sample of world cities, which says as much about the filtering as it does about any individual entry. Dubai posts the strongest individual safety score in this group at 9/10, a detail the blended ranking above can obscure if safety happens to matter more to you than to the average reader. Treat this as a starting shortlist — the recommender tool further down the site lets you push the underlying weights around if your own priorities don't match the defaults used here. The full ranking, full scorecards and links to each city's dedicated page are below.

Top pick

Lisbon

7.6/10 overall

Most affordable here

Seville

8/10 cost score

Average safety score

6.3/10

across 68 cities

Full ranking

Curious how the top two stack up criterion by criterion? Compare Lisbon vs Malaga directly →

Methodology

Cities are scored 1-10 on seven criteria — cost of living, safety, environment, transport, climate, healthcare and internet — then re-weighted specifically for this list before ranking, rather than using a flat average across all seven. Want different priorities? Set your own weights in the recommender.

Understanding the criteria

This list leans hardest on the criteria that matter most for this lifestyle rather than treating all seven equally — a city can rank highly here even with a mediocre score on a criterion this audience typically cares less about, and miss the top spots despite strong all-round numbers if it's weak on the criteria that matter most for this use case.

Tips for using this ranking

→Don't stop at the top result — compare your top 2-3 picks head-to-head using the comparator, since a 0.2-point gap in the overall score can hide a much bigger difference on the one criterion you actually care about.
→If your budget is fixed, sort mentally by Seville's cost-of-living score (8/10) as a floor, then work down this list rather than up it.

Who this ranking is for

This ranking is most useful for Digital nomads — remote workers who need fast internet and an affordable, pleasant base and Retirees — retirees prioritizing healthcare, climate and a calm environment over nightlife or internet speed. If none of those match your situation, the recommender tool lets you set your own weights instead of relying on any preset list.

Best for digital nomads

Lisbon

Best for retirees

Lisbon

Strengths & limitations of this ranking

What this method gets right

+Every city is scored with the exact same weighting, so the order reflects consistent math rather than one writer's opinion.
+Re-weighting toward this lifestyle's priorities means a city can't coast to the top on an unrelated strength.

What it doesn't capture

−The re-weighting reflects our general assumptions about this lifestyle, not your personal priorities — the recommender tool lets you override it.
−It can't account for things we don't score, like visa rules, a specific neighborhood, or a language you already speak.

How are these scores calculated?

Every city on CityMatch is scored 1-10 on seven criteria — cost of living, safety, environment, transport, climate, healthcare and internet — and those seven numbers are combined into the overall score shown throughout the site using a consistent, automated formula (an equal-weighted average by default, or your own weighting via the recommender tool). The same method is applied identically to every city, so scores are comparable across the full database.

Sources & data provenance

The current dataset is an internally curated starter dataset built for this version of the site, reflecting each city's general reputation on each criterion rather than a live feed from a single external provider. It is not yet sourced from a specific third-party API. If that changes, this section will be updated to name the exact sources in use.

Last updated: 17 July 2026

Frequently asked questions

Which city ranks #1 for "best warm-climate cities to live in"?

Lisbon tops this list with a score of 7.6/10. The next best are Lisbon, Malaga, Gold Coast.

What's the most affordable city on this list?

Seville is the most affordable, scoring 8/10 on cost of living (10 = cheapest).

What's the safest city on this list?

Dubai posts the strongest safety score here at 9/10, ahead of the 67 other cities on this list.

How is this ranking calculated?

Every city gets a 1-10 score on cost of living, safety, environment, transport, climate, healthcare and internet. This list's average safety score is 6.3/10 and average cost-of-living score is 6.1/10 across 68 cities.

Is this ranking kept up to date?

Yes — every score on this page is recalculated automatically from the same underlying dataset each time the site is rebuilt, so the ranking always reflects the current numbers rather than a static, one-off list. See the "How are these scores calculated?" section for the full methodology.

Related rankings

Safest cities in the world Cheapest cities in the world Cleanest cities in the world (air quality)Cities with the best climate in the world Cities with the best public transport

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