China / East Asia
Shanghai is one of the world's largest urban economies, with deep finance, manufacturing, and creative industries and a globally cited transit network. Shanghai is a east asia city of about 29.2M metro in China. On the composite city-intelligence score, Shanghai sits comfortably above the indexed median (80/100).
Oriental Pearl Tower
Image credit: Image: Dottie Day / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Composite profile
80/100
Shanghai is most useful for users comparing economic depth, mobility, and digital infrastructure against air-quality and climate-exposure considerations.
80/100
Strong economic and connectivity depth balanced against air-quality and climate exposure.
Globally leading
Among the world's most extensive metro networks.
Globally leading
Finance, manufacturing, and trade ecosystems shape opportunity.
The table is part of the initial server-rendered HTML and mirrors the key city score cards.
| Metric | Value | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 80/100 | Composite score across major city intelligence modules. |
| Cost of Living | 64/100 | Shanghai is among China's most expensive metros, with central rents balanced against deep services, food, and transit access. |
| Air Quality | 64/100 | Shanghai's air-quality profile reflects ongoing improvement with seasonal particulate exposure remaining the main focus. |
| Energy | 78/100 | Shanghai benefits from rapid national renewable build-out, leading EV adoption, and active building-efficiency work. |
| Safety | 86/100 | Shanghai is among the safer large global cities, with low violent-crime context and consistent neighborhood experience. |
| Internet Speed | 86/100 | Shanghai delivers fast fiber broadband and dense mobile coverage, supporting a deep digital-services and finance economy. |
| Climate Risk | 68/100 | Shanghai carries meaningful climate exposure from coastal flooding, typhoons, and rising heat, balanced by major adaptation programs. |
| Resilience | 76/100 | 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.
Shanghai is estimated to be a generally safe city (65/100 in our safety index), with solid personal-safety indicators, though night-time scores run lower.
A composite quality-of-life estimate and its component indicators.
Shanghai has a high quality-of-life estimate (71/100), with notable strengths in healthcare, public transport and infrastructure.
How the city scores for raising a family, with the indicators that drive it.
Shanghai scores moderate for family living (67/100), helped by education access and healthcare.
Suitability for remote workers, based on connectivity, mobility, and livability.
Shanghai is high for remote workers (75/100), based on connectivity, affordability and walkability and day-to-day amenities.
Suitability for retirement, weighing healthcare, affordability, climate, and environment.
Shanghai is high for retirement (69/100), appealing for healthcare access, affordability and a comfortable climate.
Local public safety guidance for Shanghai, with the country-level emergency contacts that apply when calling for police, fire, or ambulance.
For the universal emergency contacts that apply in Shanghai, including police, fire, and ambulance, see the China 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 Shanghai, with national-level information from China 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 Shanghai, see the China 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 Shanghai, with national-level context from China where city-specific data is not yet verified. This is informational only.
For national transport authorities and operators that apply in Shanghai, see the China 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 Shanghai. Verified measurements are surfaced when published from accepted official datasets; transparent fallback is shown otherwise.
Source-attributed values for Shanghai 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 Shanghai 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 — strong quality of life (71/100) and a industrial city economy.
Strong (67/100) on safety, schools and green space.
More affordable than average; about 8,350 CNY/month for one person (estimate).
Late spring to early autumn; warmest in Jul, coldest in Jan.
Mainly manufacturing, automotive, tourism.
A humid continental climate, averaging about 18.5°C.
Higher education is strong (72/100).
Healthcare access is strong (67/100).
Retirement suitability is strong (68/100).
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.
Shanghai is among China's most expensive metros, with central rents balanced against deep services, food, and transit access.
Shanghai's air-quality profile reflects ongoing improvement with seasonal particulate exposure remaining the main focus.
Shanghai benefits from rapid national renewable build-out, leading EV adoption, and active building-efficiency work.
Shanghai is among the safer large global cities, with low violent-crime context and consistent neighborhood experience.
Shanghai delivers fast fiber broadband and dense mobile coverage, supporting a deep digital-services and finance economy.
Shanghai carries meaningful climate exposure from coastal flooding, typhoons, and rising heat, balanced by major adaptation programs.
Compare this city against other indexed cities in crawlable ranking tables.
Cost of living estimates for Shanghai — 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 Shanghai — Humid Continental climate, annual average 18.5°C, comfort score 81/100. Month-by-month temperatures, rainfall, sunshine, and the best months to visit. Deterministic planning estimates, not a forecast.
Economy and jobs profile for Shanghai — industrial city, economy score 69/100, key industries including manufacturing, automotive, tourism. Employment, salary, startup, remote-work, and career indicators. Deterministic planning estimates.
Education profile for Shanghai — student city, education score 71/100, 8 representative universities, plus research, student life, and international-student indicators. Deterministic dataset, not institutional rankings.
Healthcare and retirement profile for Shanghai — regional healthcare center, healthcare score 67/100, retirement score 68/100. Medical access, specialist and emergency care, affordability, and retirement suitability. Deterministic planning estimates.
Estimate a monthly budget for Shanghai 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 Shanghai 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 Shanghai. Links are derived from geographic proximity, shared region, shared natural-recreation areas, transport corridors, and country borders — not popularity or tourism rankings.
Cross-border · about 690 km from Shanghai. Explore Taipei's city intelligence profile.
Same region · about 690 km from Shanghai. Explore Wuhan's city intelligence profile.
Cross-border · about 832 km from Shanghai. Explore Busan's city intelligence profile.
Cross-border · about 838 km from Shanghai. Explore Incheon's city intelligence profile.
Cross-border · about 851 km from Shanghai. Explore Daegu's city intelligence profile.
Common questions about living in, visiting, working in, studying in and retiring to Shanghai, answered from the indexed cost-of-living, climate, safety, economy, education, healthcare and nearby-nature data on this profile.
Shanghai has a high quality-of-life estimate (71/100), with notable strengths in healthcare, public transport and infrastructure. Visitors can also reach nature such as nearby parks and countryside within weekend range.
Shanghai has a high quality-of-life estimate (71/100), with notable strengths in healthcare, public transport and infrastructure. It indexes 71/100 for overall quality of life.
A single resident of Shanghai spends roughly 8,350 CNY per month, with a one-bedroom rent near 4,440 CNY. Overall the city is more affordable than average for China. These are modelled estimates, not live quotes — verify locally.
Plan for below-average living costs and check current rents before relocating. Shanghai is high for remote workers (75/100), based on connectivity, affordability and walkability and day-to-day amenities.
Shanghai's labour market is strong, with opportunities concentrated in manufacturing, technology and education and research. Shanghai has a manufacturing-oriented economy with strengths in manufacturing, automotive and tourism.
Shanghai offers solid infrastructure and amenities for remote professionals, with a remote-work score of 70/100.
Shanghai is a student-oriented city with a mix of universities and research activity in our dataset, spanning fields such as Computer Science, Engineering and Social Sciences.
Shanghai offers a strong student environment, supported by walkable neighborhoods, relatively affordable living and strong quality of life.
Shanghai has a regional healthcare center, supported by hospitals, specialist services, and public-health infrastructure, with a healthcare score of 67/100. Residents have strong access to healthcare across primary, specialist, and emergency care.
Shanghai offers a combination of healthcare access, safety, and amenities that may appeal to retirees, with a retirement score of 68/100. Residents benefit from walkable streets and broad urban amenities and day-to-day services.
Shanghai has a humid continental climate, averaging about 18.5°C annually with roughly 650 mm of rain. The hottest month is Jul and the coldest Jan. The driest is typically Jan.
Shanghai is estimated to be a generally safe city (65/100 in our safety index), with solid personal-safety indicators, though night-time scores run lower.
Shanghai indexes a walkability score of 90 and a cycling score of 68 out of 100. Check the local operator for live transit routes and fares.
Shanghai has limited indexed nature destinations within day-trip range.
Shanghai scores moderate for family living (67/100), helped by education access and healthcare.
Shanghai rates 29/100 for outdoor lifestyle and 44/100 for green space.
Shanghai is most useful for users comparing economic depth, mobility, and digital infrastructure against air-quality and climate-exposure considerations. Its standout dimensions are safety (86/100) and internet speed (86/100). The area most worth watching is air quality (64/100), where the model registers practical gaps. Data year 2025; last updated 2026-05-16. Drawn from 5 institutional references.
Country context is available on the China country page. Related rankings include Overall Intelligence, Quality of Life, Remote Work. See where Shanghai 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.
5 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.
Used to ground energy-readiness scoring in international transition guidance.