Cities similar to São Paulo

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

Bogota is the closest match, 9.9 percentile points from São Paulo across 10 shared metrics. The two sit within eight percentile points of each other on universities, places to eat and city-centre rent. The band widens slowly from there: the last city listed sits 16.0 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 São Paulo 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
BogotaColombia9.910universities, places to eat, city-centre rent
Rio de JaneiroBrazil9.910cost of living, safety, universities
Guatemala CityGuatemala12.210local salary, women aged 20–39, safety
CasablancaMorocco13.310women aged 20–39, salary against local costs
LimaPeru13.910safety, universities, salary against local costs
Phnom PenhCambodia15.710places to eat, city-centre rent, women aged 20–39
GuayaquilEcuador15.810women aged 20–39, safety, universities
BishkekKyrgyzstan16.010universities, green space
IstanbulTurkey16.010clean air, universities, places to eat
ThessalonikiGreece16.010salary against local costs, places to eat, women aged 20–39

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 São Paulo with Bogota

Data updated