Where do you want to live?

A degree is also three years of your life in one place. These 99 cities each host at least two universities from our index — compared on affordability, safety and student vibe.

City	Country	Universities	Affordability	Safety	Student vibe
London	United Kingdom	19	2/10	6/10	10/10
Paris	France	17	4/10	6/10	9/10
Madrid	Spain	8	7/10	8/10	10/10
Milan	Italy	7	4/10	6/10	9/10
Warsaw	Poland	7	9/10	9/10	9/10
Barcelona	Spain	6	6/10	7/10	9/10
Kraków	Poland	6	9/10	9/10	10/10
Lisbon	Portugal	6	7/10	8/10	9/10
Vienna	Austria	6	8/10	9/10	9/10
Dublin	Ireland	5	2/10	6/10	9/10
Lublin	Poland	5	9/10	8/10	9/10
Lyon	France	5	8/10	6/10	9/10
Poznań	Poland	5	9/10	8/10	9/10
Rome	Italy	5	7/10	6/10	9/10
Toulouse	France	5	7/10	7/10	9/10
Wrocław	Poland	5	9/10	8/10	9/10
Athens	Greece	4	9/10	8/10	9/10
Bucharest	Romania	4	8/10	7/10	9/10
Budapest	Hungary	4	8/10	9/10	10/10
Edinburgh	United Kingdom	4	3/10	9/10	9/10
Prague	Czechia	4	9/10	9/10	9/10
Riga	Latvia	4	9/10	7/10	9/10
Amsterdam	Netherlands	3	3/10	8/10	9/10
Berlin	Germany	3	7/10	7/10	9/10
Białystok	Poland	3	9/10	9/10	7/10
Birmingham	United Kingdom	3	8/10	6/10	9/10
Brno	Czechia	3	9/10	8/10	9/10
Cluj-Napoca	Romania	3	9/10	9/10	10/10
Gdańsk	Poland	3	9/10	8/10	8/10
Gif-sur-Yvette	France	3	7/10	9/10	6/10
Glasgow	United Kingdom	3	8/10	5/10	9/10
Graz	Austria	3	8/10	8/10	9/10
Hannover	Germany	3	8/10	7/10	8/10
Iași	Romania	3	9/10	8/10	9/10
Katowice	Poland	3	9/10	8/10	9/10
Łódź	Poland	3	9/10	8/10	9/10
Minsk	Belarus	3	9/10	8/10	8/10
Montpellier	France	3	7/10	6/10	9/10
Munich	Germany	3	3/10	9/10	9/10
Palaiseau	France	3	6/10	8/10	8/10
Pisa	Italy	3	8/10	6/10	9/10
Stockholm	Sweden	3	3/10	8/10	8/10
Szczecin	Poland	3	9/10	8/10	7/10
Vilnius	Lithuania	3	8/10	8/10	9/10
Aachen	Germany	2	8/10	8/10	8/10
Aberdeen	United Kingdom	2	9/10	9/10	8/10
Bari	Italy	2	8/10	7/10	8/10
Besançon	France	2	8/10	8/10	7/10
Bilbao	Spain	2	7/10	9/10	8/10
Bordeaux	France	2	5/10	8/10	9/10
Bratislava	Slovakia	2	8/10	8/10	8/10
Brighton	United Kingdom	2	3/10	6/10	9/10
Bristol	United Kingdom	2	3/10	7/10	9/10
Brussels	Belgium	2	6/10	3/10	8/10
Caen	France	2	8/10	7/10	9/10
Cambridge	United Kingdom	2	3/10	7/10	9/10
Canterbury	United Kingdom	2	4/10	7/10	9/10
Cardiff	United Kingdom	2	8/10	5/10	9/10
Champs-sur-Marne	France	2	6/10	8/10	7/10
Copenhagen	Denmark	2	2/10	10/10	9/10
Coventry	United Kingdom	2	8/10	6/10	9/10
Darmstadt	Germany	2	6/10	9/10	8/10
Essen	Germany	2	8/10	8/10	8/10
Gothenburg	Sweden	2	3/10	9/10	8/10
Grenoble	France	2	8/10	4/10	9/10
Hamburg	Germany	2	5/10	8/10	9/10
Innsbruck	Austria	2	4/10	8/10	9/10
Karlsruhe	Germany	2	7/10	9/10	8/10
Kaunas	Lithuania	2	9/10	8/10	8/10
Košice	Slovakia	2	9/10	8/10	8/10
Lausanne	Switzerland	2	2/10	7/10	9/10
Leeds	United Kingdom	2	6/10	5/10	9/10
Leicester	United Kingdom	2	9/10	6/10	9/10
Liverpool	United Kingdom	2	8/10	7/10	10/10
Manchester	United Kingdom	2	7/10	8/10	9/10
Murcia	Spain	2	9/10	8/10	9/10
Naples	Italy	2	9/10	6/10	9/10
Nicosia	Cyprus	2	8/10	8/10	9/10
Nottingham	United Kingdom	2	8/10	7/10	9/10
Oslo	Norway	2	2/10	9/10	8/10
Ostrava	Czechia	2	9/10	8/10	8/10
Oxford	United Kingdom	2	3/10	4/10	9/10
Pamplona	Spain	2	6/10	9/10	8/10
Porto	Portugal	2	9/10	8/10	9/10
Rennes	France	2	8/10	8/10	9/10
Rzeszów	Poland	2	9/10	9/10	9/10
Salzburg	Austria	2	3/10	9/10	7/10
Seville	Spain	2	8/10	8/10	9/10
Sheffield	United Kingdom	2	9/10	9/10	9/10
Skopje	North Macedonia	2	9/10	7/10	8/10
Stuttgart	Germany	2	4/10	7/10	8/10
Tallinn	Estonia	2	7/10	7/10	8/10
Timișoara	Romania	2	9/10	8/10	9/10
Trieste	Italy	2	7/10	8/10	7/10
Turin	Italy	2	8/10	7/10	9/10
Turku	Finland	2	8/10	9/10	9/10
Uppsala	Sweden	2	4/10	8/10	9/10
Valencia	Spain	2	8/10	7/10	9/10
Zurich	Switzerland	2	2/10	9/10	8/10

Scores come from our open City Life Index (Eurostat cost data plus curated city research). Cities with a single indexed university are covered on their university's page instead.

Last updated 2026-08-13.

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