And the Best Cities for Introverts Are…
What makes a city more comfortable or most favored for introverts?
When I ran across several “Best Cities for Introverts” articles online, my first thought was “Why would introverts want to live in cities if they didn’t have to?” I was thinking of the bother of noise, crowds and constraints on privacy. But then I remembered Virginia Woolf’s celebrated essay, “Street Haunting,” about a meditative wander through nighttime London. I remembered, too, elusive actress Greta Garbo calling her aimless daily walks in New York City’s Manhattan her “greatest pleasure.” And let’s not forget the leisurely strolls through Paris of poet Charles Baudelaire and his delineation of the figure of the city-browsing flâneur.
Since all three of those urban walkers were introverts, I had to take back my assumption that introverts couldn’t thrive in a world-class metropolis. Instead, I cast a clear-eyed look at the features these “Best Cities” lists considered suitable for introverts. See what you think of these criteria as I catalog them.
A 2022 article on the gaming website Mr Q had me scratching my head as it measured suitability for introverts by the number of remote jobs, average wifi speed, number of outdoor trails and parks, museums, libraries and theaters and its “Happiness Index,” among other criteria. Perhaps introverts do gravitate more to remote jobs, but by definition those could be headquartered hundreds or thousands of miles away from the target city. And I’m not sure I understand why introverts would care more than extroverts about cultural amenities, wifi or the supposed happy vibes of a place.
A 2025 ranking on a home loan website similarly ranked cities for introverts according to criteria like green spaces, libraries, safety and average happiness. Again, though, except for the libraries, wouldn’t those features matter across the board, not only for introverts? The introduction to this site’s rankings claimed to measure how conducive cities are to tranquility and reflection. Introverts, they say, seek “peaceful cities that prioritize safety, mental wellbeing and clean, healthy surroundings.” Okay, but here I once more wasn’t impressed with the website’s quantifications.
A digital nomad’s frankly subjective 2025 take on cities she had traveled to made much more sense to me. She defined “introvert-friendly” locations as those with plenty of mind-one’s-own-business coffee shops in areas where people aren’t overly curious about strangers and where serenity in nature is easily accessible close by. For her, this included Asheville, North Carolina, Minneapolis-St. Paul in Minnesota, Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico – and New York, New York. Hear her out:
“The most populated city in the U.S. also happens to be very much a solo city, and everyone is usually doing their own thing and keeping to themselves. So if you’re looking to go about your day without the awkward small talk, you’re in good company. You’ll blend right in with the crowd and remain anonymous wherever you go.”
On the other hand, another subjective roundup of best locations for introverts, from 2022, placed a high priority on low population density, which ruled out New York City and ruled in Portland, Oregon and Nashville, Tennessee. Other criteria mentioned by this writer included a slower-paced lifestyle, quiet streets and plenty of things to do solo or in small groups.
From my brief survey of best-for-introverts recommendations, I feel the no-numbers articles offer more ideas worth pondering than the rankings that purport to be objective. Probably it’s just common sense: To find comfortable spots for settling down, consider what qualities matter to you, visit the top candidates if you can, pay attention to your reactions and remember that someone else’s enthusiasm, even if backed up by data, may not mean much for your satisfaction.