Hometown Glory

Houston wins Best City in America honors: Another national pub cannot help but gush

Take that, you Houston naysayers! In a love letter that the mayor, the chamber of commerce and most citizens will treasure, Business Insider declares that Houston is the Best City in America and offers up 17 compelling reasons why.

The list shouts out themes of innovation, culture and diversity that play key roles in polishing H-Town's star. Business Insider editors agree that Houston has some of the best restaurants in the region. They also point to the fact that the Bayou City is brainy thanks to two leading universities — Rice and the University of Houston. And, no surprise here, the city is ground zero for the country's booming oil and gas industry.

Five winning attributes:

1. Houston is the No. 1 city for job creation. Just ask the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

2. Houston's unemployment rate is below the national level.

3. Our paychecks pack more bang for the buck thanks to affordable wining, dining and housing. When adjusted for cost of living, Houston has the highest annual average pay in the country.

4. Because Houston didn't experience the housing bubble that the rest of the country did, you can actually afford to buy a house here. (Though the current skyrocketing housing prices may test Business Insider's reasoning here).

5. 22 Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in Houston including ConocoPhillips, Enterprise Products Partners, Sysco and CenterPoint Energy.

Check out the list for yourself . . . and don't be afraid to brag, a lot.

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H-Town rising

Houston leaps back into top 50 'World's Best Cities' list for 2025

Photo by Adrian Newell on Unsplash

Houston made a big leap back into the top 50, ranking No. 40, after previously plummeting into No. 72 last year.

Lively Houston has regained its rightful place among the top 50 best cities in the world, according to a prestigious new report by Resonance Consultancy.

The Canada-based real estate and tourism marketing advisors ranked Houston the 40th best city worldwide for 2025 in its annual "World's Best Cities" list.

The report quantifies the relative qualities of livability, "lovability," and prosperity for the world's top 100 cities with metropolitan populations of 1 million or more. New to the 10th anniversary edition, Resonance partnered with global market researchers Ipsos to include perception-based data into the rankings, surveying over 22,000 people in 30 countries worldwide to determine "the most desirable places to visit, live or work."

Houston made a major rebound after plummeting to No. 73 in last year's report. In 2022, Houston ranked No. 42.

Resonance refers to its previous "World's Best Cities" reports and its 2024 "America's Best Cities" list – which ranked Houston in the top 10 – when explaining the Bayou City's successes. The report praised Houston's vast cultural diversity and placed a great focus on its economic prosperity, even going so far as to suggest Houston residents make more money "and can sock more away."

"...[W]here America’s fourth-largest city truly takes off is in its economic heft and wealth, ranking No. 9 globally for GDP per Capita and No. 14 for Fortune 500 companies in town," the report said. "All that rolls up into an overall Prosperity index ranking of No. 36, which is even more impressive given the No. 14-ranked Price-to Income Ratio [of the city]."

Elsewhere in Texas, Austin and Dallas also earned spots on the World's Best Cities list for 2025, but only one made a similar rebound from the previous year's rankings. Dallas moved up from No. 66 in last year's report to its current rank as No. 55. Meanwhile, Austin took its first tumble out of the 43rd spot (which it had occupied for two years straight) and now ranks No. 53.

London held onto its crown as the No. 1 best city in the world for 2025, followed by New York (No. 2), Paris (No. 3), Tokyo (No. 4), and Singapore (No. 5).

Hometown Glory

Houston wins Best City in America honors: Another national pub cannot help but gush

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H-Town rising

Houston leaps back into top 50 'World's Best Cities' list for 2025

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