As keyless security experts, we know first-hand at Kisi how much of a difference it makes to work smarter rather than harder. Whether in or out of the office, we understand the value of time and believe that dedicating too much of it to your job interferes with life outside of work, and vice-versa. To explore this topic further, we conducted a study determining the cities whose residents have the most well-rounded work-life balance, in terms not only of work intensity, but also their livability and the well-being and rights of their inhabitants.

This index is not designed to be a city livability index, nor is it intended to highlight the best cities to work in; instead, it aims to be a guideline for cities to benchmark their ability to support the fulfillment of residents’ lives by improving the aspects of life that help relieve work-related stress and intensity. As an expanding company in Brooklyn, NY, we first evaluated the working climate at home in the United States. Then, an international study was conducted to understand how the U.S. performs worldwide, including cities abroad known for attracting professionals and families for their work opportunities and diverse lifestyle offerings. As the first installment of a continuous study, a shortlist of in-demand metropolises worldwide with sufficient, reliable, and relevant datasets were selected. In future iterations, we aim to expand this study by including a larger selection of cities as data becomes more widely available.

Firstly, we assessed each city’s overall work-life score, based on a series of factors related to the amount of time a person dedicates to their job—such as total working hours, commuting, and vacation days taken. Next, we wanted to find out to what extent residents receive equal treatment, evaluating their access to state-funded health and welfare programs, as well as institutional support for gender equality and friendliness toward the LGBT+ community. We then determined each city’s livability score by examining citizens’ overall happiness, safety, and access to wellness and leisure venues—allowing us to assess whether their residents can enjoy their environment after office hours.

The result is an index encompassing 20 factors analyzing 40 cities in the U.S., followed by a global ranking of 17 notable U.S. cities and 23 international cities who recognize the importance of a work-life balance, and encourage it both directly and indirectly through policies and urban infrastructure.

The final ranking, from highest to lowest, reveals the health of a city’s work-life balance. Each individual column is filterable, and the full methodology explaining how each factor was evaluated is at the bottom of the page.