Philippines / Southeast Asia
Manila is the Philippines' capital and a coastal Southeast Asian metropolis with a deep services economy, growing tech sector, and active climate-adaptation work. Manila is a southeast asia city of about 14.6M metro in Philippines. On the composite city-intelligence score, Manila sits around the indexed median (70/100).
Image credit: Image: Mike Gonzalez (TheCoffee) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Composite profile
70/100
Manila is most useful for users comparing affordability and services in Southeast Asia against typhoon, flood, and infrastructure modernization needs.
70/100
Strong affordability and services profile balanced against typhoon and modernization needs.
Favorable
Cost-of-living levels are comparatively favorable.
Strong
Business-process services and creative industries shape opportunity.
The table is part of the initial server-rendered HTML and mirrors the key city score cards.
| Metric | Value | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 70/100 | Composite score across major city intelligence modules. |
| Cost of Living | 78/100 | Manila offers strong affordability for a major Southeast Asian capital, with food and transit costs supporting steady daily life. |
| Air Quality | 60/100 | Manila's air-quality profile is shaped by traffic, industry, and meteorology, with active monitoring and policy attention. |
| Energy | 66/100 | Manila's energy profile reflects an active transition with growing renewable build-out and rising distributed-solar adoption. |
| Safety | 66/100 | Manila has mid-tier safety with neighborhood variation and property-related opportunistic risks the main day-to-day concern. |
| Internet Speed | 76/100 | Manila has solid fiber broadband and broad mobile coverage, supporting a deep business-process services and creative-economy sector. |
| Climate Risk | 56/100 | Manila faces meaningful climate exposure from typhoons, coastal flooding, and rising heat, balanced by adaptation programs that continue to scale. |
| Resilience | 60/100 | Climate adaptation and infrastructure continuity context. |
Deterministic safety estimates from our index — planning signals derived from country priors and city data, not official crime statistics.
Manila has a moderate safety estimate (52/100); standard urban precautions are advised, particularly after dark.
A composite quality-of-life estimate and its component indicators.
Manila has a moderate quality-of-life estimate (59/100) across our combined indicators.
How the city scores for raising a family, with the indicators that drive it.
Manila scores moderate for family living (58/100).
Suitability for remote workers, based on connectivity, mobility, and livability.
Manila is high for remote workers (68/100), based on connectivity, affordability and walkability and day-to-day amenities.
Suitability for retirement, weighing healthcare, affordability, climate, and environment.
Manila is moderate for retirement (60/100), appealing for affordability.
Local public safety guidance for Manila, with the country-level emergency contacts that apply when calling for police, fire, or ambulance.
For the universal emergency contacts that apply in Manila, including police, fire, and ambulance, see the Philippines emergency profile, which currently lists no verified national contacts.
Methodology and the wider source registry are documented on the scoring methodology and data sources pages.
Healthcare context for Manila, with national-level information from Philippines where city-specific data is not yet verified. This is informational only and does not provide medical advice.
For the national healthcare and public-health context that applies in Manila, see the Philippines healthcare profile, which currently lists no verified national healthcare information.
Related sections: emergency and public safety, scoring methodology, and data sources.
Local mobility context for Manila, with national-level context from Philippines where city-specific data is not yet verified. This is informational only.
For national transport authorities and operators that apply in Manila, see the Philippines transport profile, which currently lists no verified national transport information.
Related sections: emergency and public safety, healthcare and hospitals, cities directory, countries directory, scoring methodology, data sources.
Source-attributed air-quality dataset for Manila. Verified measurements are surfaced when published from accepted official datasets; transparent fallback is shown otherwise.
Source-attributed values for Manila will appear here after the platform integrates verified measurements from accepted official publishers. Until then, structured air-quality module context remains available on the dedicated module page.
| Metric | Value | Data year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air quality | Verified air-quality measurements are not yet published for this location. | ||
Global City Intelligence — air-quality dataset
Verified data unavailableThe air-quality dataset begins empty by design. Verified city-level measurements appear here only after they are sourced from accepted publishers (WHO, EEA, US EPA, OpenAQ, OECD, or official national/city environmental agencies).
Numeric measurements appear in this section only after they are sourced from accepted official publishers. The dataset is independently validated at build time; malformed records cannot ship to production.
Quick, evidence-based answers about Manila drawn from this profile's indexed cost, climate, safety, economy, education, healthcare and nearby-nature data. Figures are deterministic estimates for orientation — verify specifics with official sources.
Yes — good quality of life (59/100) and a tourism economy economy.
Good (58/100) on safety, schools and green space.
More affordable than average; about 40,600 PHP/month for one person (estimate).
Late spring to early autumn; warmest in Jul, coldest in Jan.
Mainly government, tourism, hospitality.
A tropical climate, averaging about 25.6°C.
Higher education is strong (66/100).
Healthcare access is good (62/100).
Retirement suitability is good (62/100).
No major nature destinations are indexed within day-trip range.
City pages link to module and ranking pages so crawlers can move through the topic cluster naturally.
Manila offers strong affordability for a major Southeast Asian capital, with food and transit costs supporting steady daily life.
Manila's air-quality profile is shaped by traffic, industry, and meteorology, with active monitoring and policy attention.
Manila's energy profile reflects an active transition with growing renewable build-out and rising distributed-solar adoption.
Manila has mid-tier safety with neighborhood variation and property-related opportunistic risks the main day-to-day concern.
Manila has solid fiber broadband and broad mobile coverage, supporting a deep business-process services and creative-economy sector.
Manila faces meaningful climate exposure from typhoons, coastal flooding, and rising heat, balanced by adaptation programs that continue to scale.
Compare this city against other indexed cities in crawlable ranking tables.
Cost of living estimates for Manila — monthly budgets, rent, food, and transport in the local currency, plus an affordability score for comparison. Planning estimates derived from country baselines, not live prices.
Climate profile for Manila — Tropical climate, annual average 25.6°C, comfort score 58/100. Month-by-month temperatures, rainfall, sunshine, and the best months to visit. Deterministic planning estimates, not a forecast.
Economy and jobs profile for Manila — tourism economy, economy score 62/100, key industries including government, tourism, hospitality. Employment, salary, startup, remote-work, and career indicators. Deterministic planning estimates.
Education profile for Manila — regional education center, education score 65/100, 7 representative universities, plus research, student life, and international-student indicators. Deterministic dataset, not institutional rankings.
Healthcare and retirement profile for Manila — regional healthcare center, healthcare score 62/100, retirement score 62/100. Medical access, specialist and emergency care, affordability, and retirement suitability. Deterministic planning estimates.
Estimate a monthly budget for Manila using your own housing, food, transport, healthcare, and lifestyle inputs. Planning estimator only — not an official cost-of-living measurement.
Plan a trip budget for Manila using your own accommodation, food, local transport, activities, travel, healthcare buffer, and emergency buffer inputs. Planning estimator only — not an official travel cost estimate.
Where else nearby you could spend a day or a weekend from Manila. Links are derived from geographic proximity, shared region, shared natural-recreation areas, transport corridors, and country borders — not popularity or tourism rankings.
Same region · about 574 km from Manila. Explore Cebu's city intelligence profile.
Cross-border · about 895 km from Manila. Explore Kaohsiung's city intelligence profile.
Cross-border · about 1116 km from Manila. Explore Hong Kong's city intelligence profile.
Cross-border · about 1146 km from Manila. Explore Shenzhen's city intelligence profile.
Cross-border · about 1163 km from Manila. Explore Taipei's city intelligence profile.
Common questions about living in, visiting, working in, studying in and retiring to Manila, answered from the indexed cost-of-living, climate, safety, economy, education, healthcare and nearby-nature data on this profile.
Manila has a moderate quality-of-life estimate (59/100) across our combined indicators. Visitors can also reach nature such as nearby parks and countryside within weekend range.
Manila has a moderate quality-of-life estimate (59/100) across our combined indicators. It indexes 59/100 for overall quality of life.
A single resident of Manila spends roughly 40,600 PHP per month, with a one-bedroom rent near 21,600 PHP. Overall the city is more affordable than average for the Philippines. These are modelled estimates, not live quotes — verify locally.
Plan for below-average living costs and check current rents before relocating. Manila is high for remote workers (68/100), based on connectivity, affordability and walkability and day-to-day amenities.
Manila's labour market is moderate, with opportunities concentrated in tourism and hospitality, finance and professional services and technology. Manila has a tourism-driven economy with strengths in government, tourism and hospitality.
Manila offers solid infrastructure and amenities for remote professionals, with a remote-work score of 60/100.
Manila is a regional education center with a mix of universities and research activity in our dataset, spanning fields such as Computer Science, Engineering and Business.
Manila offers a strong student environment, supported by walkable neighborhoods and relatively affordable living.
Manila has a regional healthcare center, supported by hospitals, specialist services, and public-health infrastructure, with a healthcare score of 62/100. Residents have solid access to healthcare across primary, specialist, and emergency care.
Manila offers a combination of healthcare access, safety, and amenities that may appeal to retirees, with a retirement score of 62/100. Residents benefit from walkable streets and day-to-day services.
Manila has a tropical climate, averaging about 25.6°C annually with roughly 2402 mm of rain. The hottest month is Jul and the coldest Jan. The driest is typically Feb.
Manila has a moderate safety estimate (52/100); standard urban precautions are advised, particularly after dark.
Manila indexes a walkability score of 83 and a cycling score of 60 out of 100. Check the local operator for live transit routes and fares.
Manila has limited indexed nature destinations within day-trip range.
Manila scores moderate for family living (58/100).
Manila rates 21/100 for outdoor lifestyle and 41/100 for green space.
Manila is most useful for users comparing affordability and services in Southeast Asia against typhoon, flood, and infrastructure modernization needs. Its standout dimensions are cost of living (78/100) and internet speed (76/100). The area most worth watching is climate risk (56/100), where the model registers practical gaps. Data year 2025; last updated 2026-05-16. Drawn from 4 institutional references.
Country context is available on the Philippines country page. Related rankings include Overall Intelligence, Quality of Life, Remote Work. See where Manila appears in global rankings or read the scoring methodology.
Structured indicators on this page are directional and intended for orientation. Verified datasets are being integrated; official sources should be used for critical decisions.
4 institutional references inform this view, listed below with reliability notes. Structured indicators on this page are directional and intended for orientation; verified datasets are being integrated and official sources should be used for critical decisions.
Used as a policy and methodology reference for urban exposure and resilience signals.
Used to normalize air-quality indicators toward health-protective benchmarks.
Used as an energy-resource and weather-normalization reference.
Used to explain urban climate vulnerability and adaptation scoring logic.