The study

We’ve done this before. Last year’s US-focused project is something we’re proud of, but it was clear our methods could be improved. Lessons learned and public feedback have allowed us to go back to the drawing board and refine the process.

Our new, improved, alternative Hipster Index combines five data points: the number of vegan eateries, coffee shops, tattoo studios, vintage boutiques, and record stores per 100,000 city residents. Combined and weighted they produce a Hipster Index score out of ten for each city. To prevent inflated numbers — and preserve our sanity — we excluded cities with populations below 150,000.

We looked at 446 cities across 20 countries. That’s 2,834 record stores, 7,772 vegan eats, 14,588 tattoo studios, 15,549 vintage boutiques, and 93,203 coffee shops covering a combined population of over 200,000,000 people. Serious. Bloody. Business.

Check out the full results below.