Cities similar to Rio de Janeiro

Ranked by how close each city sits to Rio de Janeiro across ten measured metrics: sex ratio, cost, rent, salary, safety, air, green space, places to eat and universities. Closer is more alike, not better.

São Paulo is the closest match, 9.9 percentile points from Rio de Janeiro across 10 shared metrics. The two sit within eight percentile points of each other on cost of living, safety and universities. The band widens slowly from there: the last city listed sits 15.4 away, so these 10 are a cluster rather than a ranking with a clear winner. 1 of the 10 is also in Brazil; the other 9 are abroad. Distance says how alike two cities measure, never which one is better to live in: a city can be close to Rio de Janeiro because both score badly on the same things.

921 cities ranked by male-to-female ratio, 848 of them measured below national level, 104 country deep-dives.

Closest on
São PauloBrazil9.910cost of living, safety, universities
Guatemala CityGuatemala10.010city-centre rent, places to eat, green space
Santo DomingoDominican Republic11.010local salary, safety, places to eat
Phnom PenhCambodia12.810women aged 20–39, green space, clean air
BogotaColombia12.910cost of living, universities, clean air
BeirutLebanon13.710salary against local costs, places to eat, city-centre rent
CaracasVenezuela14.510cost of living, safety, universities
BishkekKyrgyzstan15.210universities, places to eat, salary against local costs
San SalvadorEl Salvador15.310places to eat, city-centre rent
AlmatyKazakhstan15.410city-centre rent, cost of living, clean air

Distance is the root-mean-square gap in percentile points across the metrics both cities carry, so 0 would be an exact match and 100 the opposite end of every scale. A pair scored on fewer than 8 shared metrics is not listed.

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Compare Rio de Janeiro with São Paulo

Data updated