In celebration of Pride month Nestpick have ranked the best LGBT+ Cities in 2017, placing Dublin as number 26 in the top 100.

“To celebrate LGBT Pride Month and commemorate the 48th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, we’re recognising 100 cities with active LGBT communities,” Nestpick said.

The apartment sourcing company considered thousands of destinations when compiling their list and factored in five areas of importance for LGBT+ people to help them decide their top 100 cities in “one of the largest rankings of its kind to date.”

The five areas that Nestpick reviewed cities upon were dating, LGBT+ nightlife, Openness in the city, safety and LGBT+ rights.

Each category was granted a score out of five, such as Berlin’s dating score of 4.97 which made it the best city for LGBT+ dating.

Top 5

The top five cities – Madrid, Amsterdam, Toronto, Tel Aviv and London –  ranked highly in most or all of these areas, giving them an aggregate score of between 22 and 24 out of a possible 25 points.

Madrid took pride of place at the top of the list as the best LGBT+ city with a near-perfect score of 23.56. The city’s lowest score was for safety, only garnering a 4.19 out of 5.

However, the rankings have not been updated since Germany voted to legalise same-sex marriage on Friday, which would likely boost Berlin from its current ranking of number 6 after receiving a score of 3.95 for LGBT+ rights.

“With the positive outcome from the snap vote on same-sex marriage having taken place in Germany on Friday 30th June, the LGBT Rights data below will have altered significantly for German cities in the ranking.”

Dublin

Down the list, Dublin scores exceptionally highly in the majority of categories, with a 5 for LGBT+ rights, and four-point-something for dating, nightlife and openness in the city.

Where Dublin falls short, according to Nestpick’s ranking system, is Safety, receiving an extremely low 1.8 out of 5 in this area.

Nestpick clarified the criteria for the five areas which they have used to rank the top 100 LGBT+ cities:

“For a city to rank strongly as an LGBT destination, we determined that it must have a vibrant gay dating scene, a lively alternative nightlife, open minded citizens, and low levels of hate crime.

“We also took into account the national laws affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, such as the right to get married or adopt children. Once calculated, the final scores reveal the top 100 Best LGBT Cities for 2017.”

The full list of best LGBT+ 100 cities is available here.

Hate Crime Legislation

With a safety score of 1.8 it is evident that Dublin’s level of hate crime against the LGBT+ community is what prevented the city from potentially ranking as one of the top ten LGBT+ cities in the world.

With hate crimes against LGBT+ people continuing even after the majority of the country voted to legalise same-sex marriage in 2015, it is evident that change is needed to make Dublin and Ireland a safer place for LGBT+ people.

This reinforces the strong need for hate crime legislation which the Burning Issues 2 survey revealed to be highly sought after within the LGBT+ community in Ireland.