PARIS, Oct 30 ― “Your skin is glowing!” If you live in Montreal or Oslo, you're likely to hear that compliment... but maybe a little less so if you live in Paris or Mumbai. At least that's according to the Covalo platform, which has ranked the “best and worst cities” for skin health.

What if the quality of your skin depended (at least partially) on the city you live in? That's what this study from digital cosmetics platform Covalo suggests. This ranking is based on several criteria: air quality, average annual temperatures, days of sunlight... as well as factors related to the well-being of inhabitants, such as the average number of hours worked per week, smoking habits and stress level.

A total of 80 cities around the world, spread across five continents, were scrutinised. Paris ranked 26th, New York 34th and Singapore 72nd. These low rankings are due to factors like air pollution, high humidity, work stress as well as the stress of traffic jams.

The top three cities in the world ranked as good places to live for your skin are Phoenix, Arizona, USa for its free-flowing traffic and low humidity, Oslo, Norway for its low UV index and Montreal, Quebec, Canada, a city with low annual wind speed, so “less likely to dry out the skin.” Vancouver, Canada also made the top 5.

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At the bottom of the list is Mumbai, India, mainly because of the traffic jams that put inhabitants on edge, but also because of the very polluted air and high humidity. Factors which, combined, “contribute to a general decline in the skin's protective functions,” argue the authors of the study.

If you're seriously thinking about moving to a new city and your dream destination is high on this list, you may have an extra incentive to make the move! ― ETX Studio