Porto: how we arrived at a score of 7.94 in the World ranking

Porto has a score of 7.94 on a 0-to-10 scale in the World ranking of Onde Viver Bem. In the update of November 10, 2026, that put it 4th of the 45 cities in the section. The score is editorial and indicative: it follows the site's methodology, with 13 variables and fixed weights, and leaves out cost of living and the price per square metre. The position changes when the database is updated. It is not a recommendation to invest, immigrate or buy property.

Join our WhatsApp community (in Portuguese) Be the first to see new cities, articles and videos.

The ranking asks where life is better in a post-AGI world, with less work and more free time, nature and company. The Porto profile has the raw figures and the source for each variable. All 13 variables are measured, but two parts of safety are not for the municipality: violent deaths come from the Norte region (Eurostat) and the feeling of safety is for Portugal as a whole (Gallup). Below we show how the scores add up, what the data say about the city and what land costs in listings.

The city in the database

Porto is in northern Portugal, at the mouth of the Douro on the Atlantic. The database uses 231,800 inhabitants in the municipality, a 2021 figure in Wikidata (Q36433). The central point of the calculations is at 41.15° N, 8.61° W, about 89 m above sea level. Within 50 km, the highest point sampled reaches 978 m, and mountainous relief, by the methodology's criterion, starts about 40 km away.

Altitude and relief: DEM sampling via Open-Meteo Elevation, collected on November 9, 2026.

The climate is Atlantic, with a dry summer and a rainy winter. In the 2015–2024 normals, the mean monthly maximum runs from 13.5 °C (January) to 24.8 °C (August), and the minimum from 6.9 °C to 16.5 °C. Rain adds up to 1,323 mm a year: 182.9 mm in October and 12.8 mm in July. Mean monthly relative humidity sits between 77% and 82%.

By the methodology's criterion (a maximum between 18 and 30 °C and a minimum of at least 10 °C), there are 178.1 days a year in the comfort band, a score of 5.40. No month has a mean maximum above 25 °C. What takes days out of the band is the cold: from November to April the mean maximum stays below 18 °C.

Monthly normals and comfort days: ERA5 via Open-Meteo Archive (2015–2024), collected on November 9, 2026.

Safety: the largest weight and the lowest score

Safety weighs 15% and is Porto's lowest score, 4.97. It has three parts.

Violent deaths (40%): 2.06 per 100,000 inhabitants in the Norte region (NUTS 2 PT11), in 2023. Of that total, 1.55 are deaths of undetermined intent and 0.51 are assaults. Adding undetermined deaths is a methodology rule for every city and gives an upper bound, because some of them are not homicides. The figure is regional, not for the municipality. On the logarithmic scale (30 per 100,000 is 0; 0.5 is 10), this part scores 6.54.

Robbery compared with the country (30%): this is where Porto loses points. In 2022 the municipality recorded 270 snatch thefts and street thefts or robberies per 100,000 inhabitants, against 60 on average in Portugal: 4.5 times the average. This part scores 0.46. The comparison is made within the same country, with the same definition on both sides, and measures relative incidence, not absolute risk.

Feeling of safety (30%): 78% of people in Portugal say they feel safe walking alone at night where they live. The sample is national, not for the city. Score 7.38.

Sources: Eurostat, causes of death (hlth_cd_ycdr2, region PT11), INE/DGPJ, indicator 0008074 (2022) and Gallup, Global Safety Report 2025.

Restaurants, bars, culture and entertainment

Restaurants score 9.28. Within 2 km of the central point there are 806 restaurants in OpenStreetMap and 1,147 in Overture Maps; in the municipality, 955 and 1,433. In OSM that is 41.2 restaurants per 10,000 inhabitants. Bars sit at 8.37, with 197 in OSM and 356 in Overture within the same radius. Both variables average an OSM score and an Overture score on the same scale.

Culture adds up to 119 theatres, cinemas, arts centres or museums within 5 km, a score of 9.54. Entertainment hits the cap: within 50 km there are 30 destinations (theme parks, zoos, aquariums and water parks) and 176 stadiums or music venues, 206 in total, above the variable's cap of 120. Parks score 7.99: 41 within 2 km and 133 in the municipality. Airport scores 7, with 1 aerodrome with an IATA code within 50 km (the rule gives 7 for one and 10 for two or more).

Counts: OpenStreetMap via the ohsome API, July 27, 2026; bars and restaurants also from Overture Maps Places (release of October 21, 2026, Overture Maps Foundation, CDLA Permissive 2.0). Densities use a population of 231,800 (Wikidata, 2021). These are collaborative maps and may have gaps.

Sea, river and hills

Beach or mountains scores 10, in the second-largest weight (11.59%). The nearest mapped water is 5 km from the central point, which already scores 10; the metric measures distance to a mapped sea, lake or river, not how good the beach is for swimming. The mountain side has a partial score of 5.74: relief starts about 40 km away, and within 50 km there are 106 waterfalls, 52 protected areas, 156 hiking routes and 220 mapped viewpoints.

Distance to water: OSM via ohsome. Relief: Open-Meteo Elevation. Nature-leisure counts within 50 km: ohsome, July 27, 2026.

Sun, water, air and health

Sun has the third-lowest score, 5.64: 1,620.5 kWh/m² a year of radiation, averaged over 2015–2024 (on the scale, 1,000 kWh is 0 and 2,100 kWh is 10). Water sits at 9.07, with data for Portugal, not the city: water stress of 12.3% in 2022 and 95.2% of the population with safely managed water in 2024 (World Bank).

Clean air scores 8.52, with a mean PM2.5 of 9.43 µg/m³ in 2024 in the WHO database (the organisation's target is 5). Health reaches 8.37: life expectancy of 82.4 years in Portugal in 2024 (World Bank) and 27 mapped hospitals within 10 km.

Sun: ERA5 via Open-Meteo. Water and life expectancy: World Bank water stress, safely managed water and life expectancy. Air: WHO Ambient Air Quality Database. Hospitals: OSM via ohsome, July 27, 2026.

Land, housing and taxes

The price the site shows next to the score is the square metre of land, not of an apartment. In Porto, the profile shows US$ 1,233/m² (€1,102), the median asking price in 92 land listings on Imovirtual, collected on November 10, 2026. Half of the listings sit between €595 and €1,782 per m². It is an asking price, not a registered sale price. Idealista blocked the collection.

The figure varies a lot from parish to parish. In Campanhã, the median is US$ 843/m² (29 listings); in Lordelo do Ouro and Massarelos, US$ 2,560/m² (7 listings).

Source: Imovirtual, land for sale in Porto, collected on November 10, 2026 (197 raw listings; cleaned of duplicates, listings outside the municipality, rural land and implausible values). Exchange rate: EUR 0.89342 per USD on November 9, 2026, ECB reference rates via the Frankfurter API.

The apartment square metre is kept only as a reference, off the chart and out of the score. On Numbeo, the average over the 18 months to November 8, 2026 is €4,791/m² in the centre and €3,513/m² outside it. That is 182 responses from 31 contributors; it is not an official index.

Numbeo, property investment in Porto, collected on November 9, 2026.

On purchase, the property transfer tax (IMT) follows the national table: for a permanent own home, 0% up to €106,346, marginal rates of 2% to 8% up to €660,982, a flat 6% up to €1,150,853 and 7.5% above that. Stamp duty adds 0.8% on the same value. Since Decree-Law 97/2026, non-residents pay 7.5% IMT, with exceptions. Porto's annual municipal property tax (IMI) is 0.324% of the taxable value for urban buildings, according to the press; the City Council's resolution has not yet been checked.

IMT: Portal das Finanças, CIMT art. 17. Stamp duty: General Stamp Duty Table. IMI: ECO, December 10, 2025 (unofficial source). Collected on November 9, 2026; check the current text before any decision.

What the score does not say

The safety score mixes scales: violent deaths for the Norte region, robbery for the municipality and the feeling of safety for Portugal as a whole. Water and life expectancy are also national. Bars, restaurants, parks, culture, hospitals and nature leisure come from collaborative maps. The land price is an asking price in listings. The score leaves out cost of living, rent, salary, visas, tourism and schools. The 7.94 score sums up the current methodology with those caveats; it does not say which city is the best in the world.

The methodology, scales and sources are on the methodology page. The Porto profile has the detail of each variable; the Lisbon profile is a comparison within Portugal, and the map and the land × score chart place the city in the set.