Months of good-natured, frequently late-night and occasionally jetlagged debate have resulted in this: our definitive (and a little subjective) guide to the world’s most liveable cities. Here’s how we came to our conclusions.

Whether it’s due to poor infrastructure, inherent inefficiency or the occasional war, these five cities have not made the Top 25 list – but that doesn’t mean they’re not great places to live.

From international diplomacy to setting benchmarks in urbanism, from investing in culture to protecting a rich mix of independent businesses, Paris has become a hothouse for fresh thinking. That’s why we have made it our global city of 2008.

Finns aren't what they used to be - the rise of the Nordic suburbs; fighting crime in Stockholm and hitting new lows on the Milanese high street.

The US embraces pedal power, New York takes to its rivers; plus a cultural haven in Colombia.

Why Asia's capitals have that sinking feeling, the return of the Seoul hank, and why you shouldn't apply make-up on Tokyo's subway.

A Kenyan town gets a presidential boost, and will Emiratis ever use Dubai's new metro?

Sydneys' refit, a change of fortune for New Zealand's "arsehole of the world", and Perth "does a Dubai with its waterfront.

Venezuela’s president Hugo Chávez faces a new challenge – a charismatic opposition politician who believes he will soon be mayor of Caracas. But can Leopoldo López bring peace to a city where an estimated 52 people are murdered every day?

Alain de Botton, Richard Florida, Jonathan Raban, Ricky Burdett, Roope Mokka and Richard Alston – six leading writers, thinkers and academics give their view on the state of today’s cities, and their vision of the urban future.

It may lack the financial might of London or Frankfurt, but we have chosen Madrid as our business city because of its emergence as the Iberian city of opportunity, its status as gateway to Latin America, campaign to attract start-ups and its sunny quality of life

The upside to rising fuel prices and a depressed property market is more willingness to embrace Kandiyohi Development Partners’ mantra: find a better way. Plus, overleaf, the view from New York

Whether it’s building a whole city or putting up a modest bungalow, the chances are that quite a few of these companies will be there in the background. It’s time you knew your Holcim from your Asahi

A posting in an emerging market needn’t mean a five-year hardship assignment. From Port Louis in Mauritius to China’s Kunming, Monocle selects some surprising cities that have elevated themselves from their neighbours as liveable metropolises.

Soviet planning and modern speculators have left many Russian cities at crisis point. But senator and property billionaire Sergey Gordeev plans to turn impoverished Perm into a beacon of urban innovation. Is this the start of a new revolution?

Berlin’s unemployment rate is dismal and its once-thriving industry is defunct. But the abandoned warehouses and power stations now provide a home for galleries and studios that are leading the European avant-garde. Monocle salutes the winner of our culture capital award and wonders how many of the city’s hungry, energetic creatives will ever get fed.

From putting expectant mothers in touch with midwives to finding you a snake-catcher, Bangkok’s ‘quality of life’ radio station RDCK provides a lifeline in a city where public services are haphazard at best.

The leafy Rhode Island School of Design, a global leader in arts education, is buzzing about its new president: the freewheeling, commercially aware digital theorist and world-reknowned graphic designer John Maeda – a man as happy at Reebok as MoMA.

Monocle’s summer catalogue of culture aims to arm even the most outdoorsy with enough books and records, cinematic suggestions and art events to make you pray for rain. Almost.

There are many reasons why Copenhagen trumped the other cities in our quality of life survey. One of them is its undeniably seamless urban planning, paving the way for the mobility, and ultimately, the happiness of its residents. Without resorting to branding wars or architectural gimmicks, Denmark’s capital is, put simply, designed for life.

We toast the revamp of Finnish drinks chain Alko, Stockholm's waterfront gets switches on, plus a view to a thrill on Chile's coast.

Berluti gives lessons for lace-ups, a Verbal assault on the jewellery trade, and Portland bags some style.

In Monocle’s dream residential building, we would include the features and proportions of 19th-century Parisian flats and early 20th-century New York apartments, with a few additions of our own. Attention developers: veneers and fashionable embellishments are not the way forward.

Encounters with Italian law are frequently less than elegant, but one northern notary’s offices present a very civil partnership between clean modernity and solemn tradition.

Last year we engineered the perfect neighbourhood and received praise from the World Health Organisation for putting small business at the core of our high street. This year, we’ve come up with a better borough.

Friendly, cosmopolitan Fukuoka is tiny in comparison to Tokyo, but it beats the Japanese capital hands down with its cuisine and shopping. That’s why itis Monocle’s choice for our best retail city award.

Enrique Peñalosa transformed Bogotá during his three terms as mayor of the Colombian capital and today is one of the world’s leading urban consultants. For lunch he chooses a local Italian restaurant with a South American twist.

Lo-skolen was established in the tradition of Denmark’s folk schools, set up to provide courses for workers without access to university education. The school’s architects Jarl Heger and Karen & Ebbe Clemmensen designed everything from its white brick and red-tile buildings to the modernist chairs, desks and lamps. With sympathetic updates by Fogh & Følner, the 1960s design remains to this day.