Economy
Davao City Climbs to 470th in the 2026 Global Cities Index
September 24, 2026 · Joshua S Bariñan
Davao City rose 49 places to 470th among the 1,000 cities ranked in the Oxford Economics Global Cities Index for 2026, moving from fifth to third among the nine Philippine entries. Its score was carried by the environment category, where it placed 299th, while governance, economics and human capital sat lower. The city government posted the result on September 22.
Davao City placed 470th out of 1,000 cities worldwide and third among Philippine cities in the 2026 edition of the index, up from 519th and fifth a year earlier.
Where Davao landed in the 2026 index
The Oxford Economics Global Cities Index for 2026 placed Davao City at 470th among the 1,000 largest cities it tracks. That is a rise of 49 places from the previous edition and the city's best showing since the ranking began covering Philippine entries.
Among the nine Philippine cities in the index, Davao now sits third. Manila leads at 174th, Angeles City follows at 388th, and Cebu City comes in at 474th, four places behind Davao after several years ahead of it.
The city government carried the result on its official news page on September 22, alongside its other announcements for the week.
The index covers 1,000 cities across 163 countries and is published once a year.
How the five category scores broke down
Davao posted an overall score of 42.6. The five parts behind that figure were 41.3 for economics, 40.1 for human capital, 48.3 for quality of life, 71.6 for environment and 52.9 for governance.
Environment was the strongest result by rank, at 299th worldwide. The category rewards cities with lower emissions intensity, less exposure to climate risk and more green space, measures on which the wider Davao Gulf area scores better than denser urban centers.
The other ranks were further down the table. The city placed 424th in economics, 464th in human capital and 623rd in quality of life, the weakest of the five.
The spread matters more than the headline number. A single strong category can lift a city's overall place while the measures tied to incomes, schooling and services stay in the middle of the pack.
What changed since the 2025 edition
A year earlier Davao stood at 519th globally and fifth nationally, behind Manila, Cebu City, Angeles City and Bacolod. The 2026 result moves it past two of those four.
The 2025 table put Manila at 206th, Cebu City at 470th, Angeles at 488th, Bacolod at 518th, Davao City at 519th, Cagayan de Oro at 577th, Dagupan at 581st, General Santos at 835th and Zamboanga City at 861st.
Not every part of the Davao score improved. Its environment rank slipped from 258th in the 2025 edition to 299th this year, so the overall rise came from gains in the other four categories rather than from its strongest one.
Three other Mindanao cities appear in the index. Cagayan de Oro, General Santos and Zamboanga City all ranked below Davao in the 2025 edition, which leaves Davao as the only Mindanao entry near the middle of the global table.
What the index measures and what it does not
Oxford Economics builds the ranking from socioeconomic indicators and its own city forecasts, so it reflects both where a city stands now and the direction it is heading. It is not a livability survey and it is not a ranking by the size of an economy.
That distinction matters locally. The Philippine Statistics Authority separately ranked Davao City tenth among the country's 82 provinces and 33 highly urbanized cities by output in 2025, a measure of economic scale rather than of the five part mix used here.
The two results can move in different directions. A city can grow its output while slipping on governance or quality of life, and the index is built to show that.
At the top of the 2026 global list, New York and London hold the first two places with Paris third, and eight of the top ten are unchanged from the previous year.
Why the ranking gets attention in Davao
Rankings of this kind are used by site selection teams and by investment promotion offices as a first filter, which is why local governments track them. A move of 49 places is enough to change which shortlists a city appears on.
For residents the practical reading is narrower. The categories where Davao ranks lowest, quality of life and human capital, are the ones tied to housing, health services, schooling and incomes.
The city has not announced any program tied to the result. The figures land while it is also working through the effects of transboundary haze on air quality and a regional power supply that has been under repeated alerts this month.