Quality of Life in London, United Kingdom

Purchasing Power Index 109.56   High
Safety Index 45.01   Moderate
Health Care Index 69.59   High
Climate Index 88.25   Very High
Cost of Living Index 78.84   High
Property Price to Income Ratio 17.27   Very High
Traffic Commute Time Index 44.80   High
Pollution Index 57.96   Moderate
ƒ Quality of Life Index: 137.39   Moderate

Minimum contributors for an underlying section: 256

Maximum contributors for an underlying section: 1313

Last update: December 2024

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20 Comments so far
Anonymous on Nov 19, 2024:
Japan>>>>UK
less polluted, more watar quality, much less apartment prices, more population even less multi-cultured, less waiting time in healthcare, more safety, much more successful in food industry
but working environment is more bad in tokyo, even considering about UK is also relatively not good/low salary when compared to West Europe/Australia

if you are female or rich male , Tokyo is much better
John Pork on Apr 15, 2024:
As a Canadian i would love to visit London but never live in a large city like london since i live on the prairies of canada in Saskatchewan.
Alex on Mar 18, 2024:
The "climate index"sounds ridiculous.Because it rains everyday there and people there are very misreable.
Leen on Mar 16, 2024:
Agree with anyone who said that cost of living versus salary is extremely high and getting worse. More so if you are renting
Jasmine on Feb 27, 2024:
overrated city. The biggest problem is: London has the lowest salary level among all the big cities in the world, but he highest living cost. Everything, from housing to transportation, is super expensive. If you are not from a rich family, you would mostly be put on huge debt in London if you are thinking about buying a house or condo. Plus, people get depressed very easily with too many rainy days and no sun.
Mikel on Jan 06, 2024:
It was an amazing city before all the migrants and refugees came.After they came,London went to absolute chaos....Really sad to see on what this city has turned into.
Olivia on Dec 23, 2023:
I, Olivia, moved my family from England to the Russian Federation for 3 years already, since it is impossible to live in London because of rising prices for food, heating, fuel and, of course, crowds of brazen migrants who live on welfare and rob and mock local residents, and the authorities only indulge them for votes in elections. Now we have been living in Moscow for 4 years and this city is a thousand times better than London. No wonder UN experts recognize Moscow best metropolis in terms of quality of life! Moscow has been name the best in the world in terms of infrastructure development and quality of life according to UN-Habitat's City Prosperity Index.. Haters can write anything, but the fact remains anyway!
Joe on Dec 31, 2022:
If you have a good salary you will love London and it is one of the world's best cities to live in. If you earn average salary you will probably hate it unless you're young. If you're well off or young I'd choose London over New York City and most other cities. It is multicultural, great food, great transportation links, incredible history, alot of green space, always something fun happening and so on. Downsides are less posh areas can feel run-down, energy prices are out of control, politics are a mess and property prices are high.
Mathew on Oct 24, 2022:
I have lived in London for 10 years and its a complete joke. If you are not making 6 figures minimum or willing to live on the neglected outerskirts of the city do not choose London. You either experencie coginative dissonance at all times lying to yourself that this place is worth paying premium for with its obivious flaws: crime,apathy and down utter inane behaviour of your fellow Londoners or you are willingly ignorant to its flaws and your reward being lackluster nights out and a substantard existence.
Selwyn on Oct 12, 2022:
Lived here for 33 years. Born and raised. I went to some decent schools and got a great career. Never wanted to earn money in the city as I reckon it's a fool's game for those both more insecure and insincere than fools. Now, as I stare down the barrel of the gun that is home ownership, my thumb sweating to pull the trigger on collective compound interest on a London mortgage that will last the rest of my life I ask myself, "Why London?" It is big and I have been out at all hours and in all weather. I have been to, slept at, and stumbled home from almost every tube station on the underground. I have learned a lot in this city, and yet it has resounded in one home truth too bitter to accept: You will watch your life disappear paying the bills and going out with friends. The city is at a breaking point politically, like most major cities there is apathy, but with a housing crisis and two generations waiting to get their homes, the city is failing to provide anything outside of a leasehold property for £400k. Like iPhones we will trade one in for another, until I'm too tired to keep up with anything I was interested in when I was younger. Like with most cities and cultures centered around the accumulation of wealth, the gap between the richest and the poorest is stark; so don't be shocked when you see those who can't afford to be in the city shipped out to allow new players to buy in at the table. It is a great city to grow up in and be in your 20s-30s, but over the last 20 years, the tempo of the city has become too fast, much too callous. People worry about spending money here because they don't know what is going to happen tomorrow. More artistic types have left the city as the once colourful and bright cultural meccas of Camden, Shoreditch, Peckham, Deptford, Dalston, Hackney and Brixton slowly fade to grey. When exciting areas become overpriced, what made them exciting gets traded in for what makes them safe. The rental prices in all those areas currently are beyond what an average salary in the city should spend when trying to save 30% each month.
If you do come here, city living can be lonely and hard. While it is fun when you're young as you will flatshare, it is a roulette and costs will continue to increase over the next 5 years as of time of writing. Come for your career. Cut your teeth on the city and spend hours talking to everyone and anyone, but use the money to explore other areas, other countries. It's a good platform to see Europe from, even now.
Don't worry about the cultural hotspots though; wherever the university students end up because it's so cheap usually becomes the next place half the city try and get into on a Saturday night.
Brian on Oct 01, 2022:
We British have colonized, settled and ruled every part of the world from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Canada, Zimbabwe and the 13 Colonies of USA. Now it's high time we colonize and settle in Alpha Centauri.
Patel on Sep 04, 2022:
London is a bad place to live, be prepared to spend 2-3 hours in traffic, public transport feels like a chicken farm (very crowded at peak times - better to walk were possible) with old infrastructure/trains (ex. Bakerloo) and if you want to use a car problem is London has no infrastructure for the needs of individuals (ex. crossing river Thames from North-East London to South Est London is done thru two 100 years old tunnels - Rotherhithe or Blackwall - as the other only options are to get to city center -bad idea- or use Datford crossing -more miles as it is out of main city traffic-). Work/leisure will not be always near you and if you want a nice place to live (something that is not a 3-rd world "melting pot") you need to pay more than half of your income (remember that in London you have a small area, sometimes just a street or two, in a much larger bad area (ex. Brixton). City is full of beggars and is not clean (if compared to city's like Tokyo for example). Once in a while you have terrorism made by "religion of pace" and our current mayor (from same religion) said we should "get used to it". Robbery, pardon, taxation is high with more than half of what you earn (income tax, national insurance, VAT, excise tax, property tax, etc) taken by the state. There are worse places in this world, but also, many many more that are better. Do not get fooled by the image done by marketing...
Michael Wilson on Jun 19, 2022:
Jack here is dead wrong. I'm from the UK, there's no other city in the UK that offers a much as London - culturally and for work opportunities.

Moved here in 1998 having lived in Birmingham, Southampton, Leeds. Never looked back. I love London.

On the downside a lot of the interesting bits are being ever more gentrified which is slowly killing the character of the place. But that can happen to every big city.
Jack on Feb 03, 2022:
If you're foreign, you'll love London. If you're from the UK, you'll hate it because you know there's much more to offer in other parts of the country.
Anonymous on Oct 18, 2021:
I have been vaccinated with 2 doses of Covaxin. Will I be allowed to enter into British Antarctic Territory? Can someone tell me.
Siddhi udeshi on Apr 08, 2021:
Can an undergraduate from india get a job in london
Reese Macbeth on Apr 07, 2021:
London is one of the world's great cities. It has the best mix of culture, kultur and couture of anywhere I've lived. The city beggars parallel. Beautiful. Dynamic. Competitive. Cosmopolitan. Historical. Manic. Hideous. Relentless. 300+ languages. A third of Londoners were foreign born. 50+ distinct non-indigenous neighbourhood (i.e. 10,000+ families, like a Chinatown etc). This is a good thing!

There are only two downsides to London: it's expensive (if you are on a regular wage) and it's attached to the rest of the United Kingdom, like a chain-gang. Londoners were overwhelmingly against Brexit, on self-evident principle. Much of the rest of the UK was pro-Brexit, riding a wave of self-sabotaging prejudice.

Fortunately the rest of the UK is as irrelevant as the American flyover states or Australia.
A.Pops on Mar 16, 2021:
Lived there for almost half a year. Made around 2k/month, lived in a shared apartment in east end, traveled mostly by metro and went out for a beer and something to eat around 2-3 times a week. My wife and i are very frugal and not generally big spenders, so don’t imagine we went to fancy restaurants, we generally prefer the local pubs and ethnic restaurants. These 2k were enough for us to barely get by. Having another income to propel us to 3.5k a month was great, still for the bare minimum nothing lavish, we were barely able to save 1k of that. The city is amazing and would move back in a heartbeat, but to be frank the cost of living compared to the wages sets me back a bit (nevermind pandemic bla bla)
Mellor on Jan 10, 2021:
John Kay just loves to boast about his wages.
John Kay on Nov 18, 2020:
I spend a lot of time in London for work and it is truly a wonderful city. If you are in to history, cultural events, nights out on the town you'd have a hard time beating it. I've started my research as the company would like to move me out there. My pretax salary would be about (estimated) 270K GBP annually it is cheaper than here in San Francisco so I may take a slight haircut in wages. I make base salary of 392 USD now so my 270K is a guess.