Belagavi has been ranked 683rd among 1,000 cities globally in the 2026 Oxford Economics Global Cities Index, with an overall score of 30.9 out of 100.
The index, released by Oxford Economics, evaluates 1,000 of the world’s major urban economies across five parameters — Economics, Human Capital, Quality of Life, Environment and Governance. Each category is scored on a 0–100 scale before being combined into the overall score.
According to Oxford Economics’ city comparison data, Belagavi’s scorecard is:
| Parameter | Score |
|---|---|
| Overall | 30.9 |
| Economics | 34.4 |
| Human Capital | 25.3 |
| Quality of Life | 40.3 |
| Environment | 62.8 |
| Governance | 57.4 |
Environment emerges as Belagavi’s strongest parameter
Among the five categories, Environment is Belagavi’s highest-scoring area at 62.8, followed by Governance at 57.4.
The city scores 40.3 in Quality of Life and 34.4 in Economics, while Human Capital is the lowest-scoring category at 25.3.
Oxford Economics says its Human Capital assessment considers factors related to a city’s talent pool, skills, education and labour force, while the Economics category looks at factors including GDP, growth, GDP per person, employment growth, economic stability and economic diversity.
The Quality of Life category covers indicators such as life expectancy, income, income equality, housing costs, recreation and cultural amenities and internet speed. The Environment score considers factors including air quality, emissions intensity, natural disasters and climate-related indicators.
Belagavi among six Karnataka cities
The 2026 index includes six cities from Karnataka in the table being circulated:
| City | Global Rank | Overall Score |
|---|---|---|
| Bengaluru | 311 | 53.2 |
| Mysuru | 628 | 34.1 |
| Mangaluru | 665 | 31.8 |
| Belagavi | 683 | 30.9 |
| Hubballi-Dharwad | 707 | 29.7 |
| Kalaburagi | 781 | 25.5 |
Belagavi is therefore positioned 18 places behind Mangaluru and 24 places ahead of Hubballi-Dharwad in the global ranking
What the ranking means
The Oxford Economics index is not simply a ranking based on the size of a city’s economy. It combines the five categories to provide what Oxford Economics describes as a broader, data-driven assessment of the strengths, weaknesses and future potential of cities.
For Belagavi, the 2026 scorecard presents an interesting picture: the city’s Environment and Governance scores are substantially higher than its Economics and Human Capital scores.
Oxford Economics’ latest report also points to the increasing importance of Asian cities, particularly Indian and Chinese urban centres, in the global economic landscape.
For Belagavi, the 683rd global position provides a benchmark, while the individual category scores offer a more useful indication of where the city performs relatively strongly and where there is scope for improvement.
Source: Oxford Economics, Global Cities Index 2026.
Pleasantly surprising good news about our city Belgaum.
We should now be even more careful about loosing our green cover because our environment has given us our highest score.
We have enough of schools and colleges and they will aspire to get better with our human capital value increasing thereafter.
More non polluting industries can be welcomed to retain our talent locally. The planned IT hub is in right direction.
We should proud of our Belagavi city however still there is sufficient scope for development and upgradation this opportunity can be properly utilized & implemented
Belagavi, condition of roads poor.
Private transport poor.
Hotels poor food and high pricing.
Only education is very good.
Need good Healthcare which is
lagging way beyond other state.
This is not a ranking to celebrate, and a look at the data shows why.
First, Belagavi’s highest score—Environment (62.8/100)—is a gift of nature, not civic effort. It stems from our geography, topography, and proximity to the Western Ghats, not from effective municipal waste management, urban planning, or sustainability policies.
Second, our Governance score (57.4/100) is not a reflection of Belagavi’s local administration. Oxford Economics assigns a single normalized national baseline score to all Indian cities in the index. It measures national political stability and institutional frameworks, masking the actual operational performance of our local municipality. Its like saying Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Belgaum performance os exactly the same when it comes to Governance, which i doubt!
Where Belagavi actually performs on its own merit—Economics (34.4), Quality of Life (40.3), and Human Capital (25.3)—the numbers drop significantly. These three pillars carry a combined 80% weight in the composite score, placing Belagavi low in global sub-rankings among the 1,000 cities:
Economics: Rank #690+ globally
Quality of Life: Rank #710+ globally
Human Capital: Rank #780+ globally
These sub-rankings reveal significant gaps in high-value job creation, university-industry integration, and infrastructure compared to global peers.
A composite rank of #683 hides the reality. Looking closely at individual indicators shows that Belagavi has a long way to go in policy execution, deliverying effective loval administration and infrastructure and local economic growth.
A golden chance was missed by the Belagavi people. This smart city project could have taken this to greater heights had there been judicious utilization of ₹ 1000 crores meant for area based development green space development and retrofitting of existing infrastructure. But state governments delay in taking up the project and implementation of smart city plan and mismanagement by delegating the task to inexperienced staff all lead to miss the bus. Many dream projects were shelved due to unnecessary interference by politics have lead to poor show in economics human capital and other area.