Davao City has moved up 49 places in the 2026 Oxford Economics Global Cities Index, rising to No. 470 among the world’s 1,000 largest cities and becoming the third-highest-ranked Philippine city.
The latest ranking marks a significant improvement from Davao’s No. 519 global position in the 2025 index. The city also moved from fifth to third among the nine Philippine cities included in the latest assessment.
Davao recorded an overall score of 42.6 in the 2026 index, which evaluates cities across five major areas: economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance.
Its strongest performance came in the environment category, where Davao ranked 299th globally with a score of 71.6. It ranked 424th in economics, 464th in human capital, 623rd in quality of life and 583rd in governance.
The ranking places Davao ahead of Cebu City, which came in at No. 474 globally. Manila remained the highest-ranked Philippine city at No. 174, followed by Angeles City at No. 388.
Bacolod ranked fifth among Philippine cities at No. 504, followed by Cagayan de Oro at No. 530, Dagupan at No. 620, General Santos at No. 818 and Zamboanga City at No. 823.
Davao’s rise is particularly notable because the city improved despite continuing to post lower rankings in some categories. Its economics and human-capital positions, for example, remain below Cebu’s, while Davao performed better in quality of life and substantially better in environment.
Oxford Economics describes its Global Cities Index as a holistic assessment of the world’s 1,000 largest cities. Rather than measuring economic size alone, the index combines five dimensions to provide a broader picture of a city’s current performance and future prospects.
The framework gives the greatest weight to economics at 30 percent, followed by human capital and quality of life at 25 percent each, while environment and governance account for 10 percent each.
Davao is also identified by Oxford Economics as an “Emerging Standout,” a group of developing-world cities that are performing strongly relative to their respective countries. The research firm said major cities across Asia are increasingly driving global growth trends.
The latest result therefore puts Davao in a stronger position within the Philippine urban rankings while also highlighting areas where the city continues to have room for improvement.
From No. 519 to No. 470 globally in one year, Davao’s latest ranking signals a notable change in its position — but the bigger story may be whether the city can sustain that momentum across all five measures in the years ahead.
