A study conducted by language learning app Preply reveals the best European cities to raise a family, with Funchal coming out on top.

Analysing over 130 European cities and their prospects across three categories - ‘Education’, ‘Health and Safety’ and ‘Leisure and Lifestyle’, contributing factors include teacher to student ratios, educational attractions and recreational spaces (per capita), healthcare accessibility, length of maternity leave, air quality and more.

Top contenders

Ranking top is the city of Funchal, found on the Portuguese island of Madeira. Scoring among the top ten for all three categories, the city’s ‘chart-topping’ performance is owed to it having the lowest crime rate of all, low air pollution levels and a cheaper cost of living. Portugal’s student to teacher ratio also falls just shy of the top ten in Europe, ranking 11th.

Looking at how all Portuguese cities place, Lisbon also makes it into the top ten of best cities for raising children, whilst Porto places among the overall top twenty five.

Placing third, Lisbon’s success is largely down to it’s high scores in both the ‘Education’ and ‘Leisure & Lifestyle’ categories. The Portuguese capital ranks as Europe’s second best for lifestyle prospects overall, thanks to its lower cost of living (despite it’s capital status) and a good choice of green spaces and sports centres (per capita). The city also scores big (fifth) for educational prospects too, due to a combination of a higher percentage of students in post-compulsory education, a healthy annual expenditure on education and a good ratio of educational attractions to residents.

Ranking as 22nd best city to raise children is Portugal’s second largest city, Porto. Porto’s most impressive accolade is for it’s choice of historical landmarks (per capita), as it places sixth for it’s good ratio of resident to historical landmarks. The northern city also scores among the top ten where choice of parks (per capita) are concerned.

Top 10

Others making up “Europe’s Top 10’ include Trieste, Italy which ranks second overall but also in the ‘Education’ category and comes top for ‘choice of historical landmarks’. Whilst UK city, Edinburgh, secures top marks (ranking 9th) thanks to its great educational prospects.

As the only country that features in the top ten twice, congratulations are order for Portugal, as both Funchal and Lisbon make it thanks to their exceptional scores where air quality and educational attractions are concerned. Reykjavik (Iceland), Prague (Czech Republic), Helsinki (Finland), Aarhus (Denmark) and Graz (Austria), complete Europe’s top ten cities to raise children.