Home to two universities ranked among the world’s top 200, Finland’s harbor-based capital city is known for its attractive architecture, high quality of life, and for managing to be both laid-back and forward-looking at the same time.
It’s no surprise to see Helsinki getting a particularly high score in the “desirability” category of the index – extended for the 2015 edition to take into account a wider range of factors, including safety, pollution and social tolerance. It comes 8th out of 140 cities in The Economist’s 2014 Global Liveability Ranking, 3rd out of 177 cities in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, and is one of the world’s cleanest capitals according to Numbeo’s Pollution Index.
Given the Nordic region’s reputation for high living costs to match these high living standards, it may be more surprising to find that Helsinki also scores relatively well in the “affordability” category. This is largely due to the fact that in Finland higher education is free, regardless of nationality. (The country is currently considering whether to introduce fees for non-EU/EEA students from 2016 onwards.) Helsinki is also the most affordable of the Nordic capitals according to the Mercer Cost of Living Survey.
QS ranked universities
University of Helsinki ; Aalto University
More about Helsinki
| Number of universities ranked by QS
| 2
|
| Top ranked institution
| University of Helsinki (67th in the world)
|
| Population
| 1,050,000
|
| Students (% of total population)
| 3.5% (based on ranked institutions)
|
| International students
| 8.0% (of students at ranked institutions)
|
| Average tuition fees
| US$0
|
| Global Liveability Ranking
| 8th (out of 140)
|
| Mercer Cost of Living rank
| 42nd (out of 214)
|
| Cost of a Big Mac
| US$5.52
|
| Cost of an iPad
| US$679.07
|
| Numbeo safety rank
| 114th (out of 372)
|
| Numbeo pollution rank
| 288th (out of 299)
|
| Transparency International score
| 3rd (out of 177) |
