BY KULDEEP SINGH YADAV
The Sultanate of Oman has achieved a new international milestone, advancing to third place globally in the Quality of Life Index for the first half of 2026, as issued by the Numbeo Index, while simultaneously maintaining its top position at both the Asian and Arab levels. This follows its fourth-place global ranking during the same period in 2025, marking further confirmation of the continued improvement in quality of life and the enhancement of the Sultanate of Oman’s appeal as a destination for living, investment, and stability.
This progress reflects the growing standing that the Sultanate of Oman has attained on the map of the most livable countries, owing to an integrated system combining security and stability, quality services, sustainable urban planning, and the provision of a balanced living environment that places human beings at the heart of the development process.
Although many international indices base their assessments on economic performance or gross domestic product, the Quality of Life Index adopts a different perspective, measuring the daily quality of life of residents through a set of factors directly related to living details, such as safety levels, purchasing power, healthcare, cost of living, property price-to-income ratio, average daily commuting time, pollution levels, and climate suitability.
Through these criteria, the Sultanate of Oman recorded advanced performance across a number of key areas, particularly in safety levels, purchasing power, a low property price-to-income ratio, relatively low pollution levels, and short average commuting times—factors that contributed to the Sultanate of Oman attaining third place globally in this classification.
This achievement is consistent with the approach adopted by the Sultanate of Oman in developing cities and urban centers through the preparation of comprehensive structural plans and the development of future cities aimed at building more efficient, sustainable, and higher-quality urban environments. This is achieved by providing integrated service communities, enhancing mobility, increasing green and open spaces, improving the quality of the urban environment, and raising the efficiency of infrastructure—all of which positively impact the daily lives of residents.
The launch of the Greater Muscat Project represents a strategic milestone in reshaping the capital’s urban landscape, through an integrated planning vision aimed at building a more connected, vibrant, and sustainable city, improving the efficiency of the transport and mobility network, bringing services and facilities closer to residential neighborhoods, and enhancing urban environmental quality, in line with global best practices in modern city planning.
The Sultan Haitham City continues to make notable progress in its construction works, alongside the ongoing development of a range of future cities and urban projects, including A’Thuraya City, the Future Salalah City, Al Jabal Al Aali (High Mountain” Project and the Al Khuwair Downtown.
These are part of an integrated urban vision aimed at building more sustainable and higher-quality cities through integrated services, enhanced mobility, increased green spaces, improved infrastructure efficiency, and the provision of balanced residential and working environments. These projects align with the national approach toward more vibrant, resilient and attractive cities, thereby reinforcing the Sultanate of Oman’s position as a global destination for living and investment and consolidating its competitiveness in international quality of life indices.
The Quality of Life Index is issued by the global Numbeo Index, established in 2009, which is the largest specialized database for comparing cost of living and quality of life among countries and cities worldwide. It relies on updated data and user contributions, alongside statistical methodologies to measure daily life indicators, including security, healthcare, pollution, traffic, purchasing power, property prices, cost of living, and other indicators that reflect the reality of life in various countries around the world.
