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Brighton and Hove topped MoveHub’s 2018 list of the world’s most hipster cities, followed by Portland and Salt Lake City. The ranking counted selected kinds of businesses—not residents’ identities or the full range of local culture—so it is best read as a historical snapshot, not a current or definitive verdict.
What are the most hipster cities in the world?
MoveHub’s 2018 global Hipster Index ranked these 20 cities, in order. It limited the comparison to cities with populations above 150,000 and counted vegan eateries, coffee shops, tattoo studios, vintage boutiques, and record stores. MoveHub’s index is the source for the ranking.
- Brighton and Hove, United Kingdom
- Portland, Oregon, United States
- Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
- Seattle, Washington, United States
- Lisbon, Portugal
- Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States
- Miami, Florida, United States
- Orlando, Florida, United States
- Helsinki, Finland
- Spokane, Washington, United States
- Tampa, Florida, United States
- Eugene, Oregon, United States
- Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
- Atlanta, Georgia, United States
- San Francisco, California, United States
- Rochester, New York, United States
- Bordeaux, France
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
- Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
- Richmond, Virginia, United States
What did the index measure—and what did it leave out?
The five categories offer a countable way to compare certain businesses. They do not show how many residents identify with a subculture, how those venues are used, or how a city’s music, art, fashion, politics, and community life fit together. The result depends on which businesses the index classified and the commercial data available to it.
“Hipster” is also an informal and contested label. In a 2016 review in the European Journal of Cultural Studies, Ico Maly and Piia Varis describe hipster culture as “a translocal and layered phenomenon with contextually specific claims to authenticity.” They write that “the claim to authenticity, uniqueness and individuality” is crucial to defining a hipster. Those ideas are not captured by counting shops. Read Maly and Varis’s review.
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Is this a current ranking?
No. It is a 2018 ranking, and the available evidence does not establish a newer, directly comparable global index or verify current scene conditions in all 20 cities. The order should not be presented as a 2026 ranking or as proof that the same cities lead today.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Which cities have the best alternative culture?
The MoveHub list cannot answer that broader question on its own. A more useful present-day comparison would look at particular neighborhoods and name its criteria—for example, food and drink, arts and culture, street life, community, and distinctive local character. Time Out’s 2024 neighborhood ranking describes using those kinds of factors, drawing on its local writers and editors; it is a neighborhood-level editorial comparison, not an update to MoveHub’s city index. See Time Out’s 2024 neighborhood ranking.
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