Ranked: The world's most romantic cities

City breaks are ideal for relaxation, culture, and, of course, romantic getaways. If you're thinking about a holiday with your other half, where's the best place to go? We analysed the cities around the world to work out which ones are best to visit if you're looking to channel that loving feeling.

Our new Worldwide Romantic Index ranks 66 cities around the globe based on how romantic they are. We created an index score for each city by combining five factors:

• The city where you're most likely to get proposed to, based on 118,000 #engaged #heproposed and #isaidyes worldwide posts on Instagram in the last 6 months
• Marriage rates in each city
• LGBT dating scene in each city based on a worldwide study by Nestpick
• How sexually active people are in each city based on a study of 450,000 adults
• How many people are feeling romantic, based on social media posts

What's the world's best city for love?

With an index score of 46.4 out of 50, New York City came out on top as the world's most romantic city. It has seen the most marriage proposals over the last six months, according to Instagram data, and was rated the best city in the world for LGBT dating, with a score of 5 out of 5.

The Big Apple is also the 9th most sexually active city in the world and has the 4th highest marriage rate. It has plenty of idyllic places to go on a date, such as Central Park or the Empire State Building, where you can gaze at stunning cityscape views.

London was ranked as the second most romantic city overall. The UK capital has been the location for 1,813 Instagram posts about marriage proposals in the last six months and is the 4th most sexually active city, yet it only came in 44th for marriage rates.

The world's most popular cities for marriage proposals

The Worldwide Romance Index took to Instagram to see which city breaks are most popular for marriage proposals. To date, 1.7 million #isaidyes posts have been shared on the platform.

By looking at posts from the last six months tagged with #heproposed, #engaged, or #isaidyes and analysing their location, the study revealed that New York City is the most popular place to pop the question. London saw the second highest number of marriage proposals, while Los Angeles took third place.

Here's the top 10 cities for Instagram posts about marriage proposals:

The most sexually active cities in the world

We looked at data from a study by Lazeeva on the world's most sex positive cities for our ranking. Lazeeva interviewed 450,000 adults aged between 18-70 to work out how sexually active people are in each city and work out a score for each.

With a score of 9.9, Paris was found to be the most sexually active city in the world, while Los Angeles came in second place and Ibiza was third.

The top ten includes:

It seems that overall, New York City can be crowned the new "city of love". Yet, the world has many romantic city breaks to offer depending on what you're looking for. For example, New York could signify a marriage proposal but Paris might be better for couples who want a classic romantic getaway. If you'd rather travel within the UK, London was ranked as the second-best city for romance overall!

Jason Goldberg, Founder at SpaSeekers said: "Valentine's Day may be a time where sparks fly but romance should be enjoyed throughout the year. While a holiday in the Big Apple may be the adventure of a lifetime, you can enjoy just as much quality time together at a spa day closer to home!"

If you're looking for a few hours away from the buzz of the metropolis, or if your urban adventure has left you in need of a little TLC, check out our range of spa breaks across the UK and take advantage of exclusive deals and offers.

Methodology:

Our study looked at six months' worth of Instagram posts by location to gather data on marriage proposals and love. Using Linkfluence, we analysed 188,000 posts tagged #isaidyes, #heproposed or #enganged and 53,000 posts tagged as #love or #inlove between July and December.

LGBT dating scene data was gathered from a worldwide study by Nestpick. This analysis ranked cities on quality of life for the LGBT community and involved 2,500 participants from around the world.

The data on the most sexually active cities comes from a Lazeeva study that ranked the world's most sex positive cities in the world. They interviewed 450,000 adults between the ages of 18 and 70.

We looked at OECD statistics to find out marriage rates, while a list of country codes can be found here.

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