The world's sunniest cities in 2026, ranked
891 major cities worldwide ranked by annual sunshine hours from long-term climate normals, by Sunshine Atlas. Published October 2026.
Key findings
• Tabuk, Saudi Arabia is the world's sunniest major city: 4,052 hours of sunshine a year — 2.5× more than London's 1,592.
• Saudi Arabia leads the top 10 with 3 of the world's 10 sunniest cities.
• The sunniest big city (3M+ people) is Phoenix at 3,833 hours a year.
• Every inhabited continent has its own sun capital — the per-continent table is below.
The top 30
| # | City | Country | Sun h/yr | Best month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tabuk | Saudi Arabia | 4,052 | February |
| 2 | Sohag | Egypt | 4,007 | January |
| 3 | Luxor | Egypt | 3,991 | January |
| 4 | Hail | Saudi Arabia | 3,883 | February |
| 5 | Arequipa | Peru | 3,879 | April |
| 6 | Najran | Saudi Arabia | 3,871 | January |
| 7 | Hermosillo | Mexico | 3,844 | April |
| 8 | Mexicali | Mexico | 3,841 | March |
| 9 | Phoenix | United States | 3,833 | April |
| 10 | Windhoek | Namibia | 3,829 | June |
| 11 | Khartoum | Sudan | 3,820 | January |
| 12 | Mesa | United States | 3,778 | April |
| 13 | Qassim | Saudi Arabia | 3,777 | January |
| 14 | Ciudad Juárez | Mexico | 3,775 | April |
| 15 | El Paso | United States | 3,775 | April |
| 16 | Zahedan | Iran | 3,764 | October |
| 17 | Yazd | Iran | 3,759 | March |
| 18 | Medina | Saudi Arabia | 3,750 | February |
| 19 | Las Vegas | United States | 3,742 | April |
| 20 | Taif | Saudi Arabia | 3,742 | February |
| 21 | Alexandria | Egypt | 3,737 | May |
| 22 | Tijuana | Mexico | 3,734 | May |
| 23 | Tucson | United States | 3,726 | April |
| 24 | Riyadh | Saudi Arabia | 3,722 | January |
| 25 | Kerman | Iran | 3,716 | September |
| 26 | Isfahan | Iran | 3,689 | September |
| 27 | Shiraz | Iran | 3,687 | May |
| 28 | Chihuahua | Mexico | 3,641 | February |
| 29 | Torreón | Mexico | 3,634 | February |
| 30 | Lhasa | China | 3,630 | May |
Explore all 3,833 destinations on the interactive globe →
The sunniest city on each continent
The single sunniest major destination on every inhabited continent — a fairer global spread than a raw list, which the desert belt dominates.
| Continent | Sunniest city | Sun h/yr |
|---|---|---|
| Asia | Tabuk, Saudi Arabia | 4,052 |
| Africa | Sohag, Egypt | 4,007 |
| South America | Arequipa, Peru | 3,879 |
| North America | Hermosillo, Mexico | 3,844 |
| Oceania | Perth, Australia | 3,335 |
| Europe | Granada, Spain | 3,197 |
Methodology
Cities are ranked by annual sunshine hours from long-term climate normals (NASA POWER, 2001–2020), limited to major destinations with a passenger airport and a population over 250,000 — so every entry is a real city you can fly to, not a lone desert airstrip. Sunshine hours are the yearly total of bright sunshine: a desert city clears 4,000, a cloudy northern one barely passes 1,500. For the 0–100 Sunshine Score that also weighs warmth and rain, explore the map. See also Europe's sunniest cities, the world's sunniest countries and the sunshine divide within countries.
Republish this data
Free to use under CC BY 4.0: credit Sunshine Atlas and link to this page. Download the full ranking as CSV: sunshine-atlas-worlds-sunniest-cities.csv (891 cities, annual sunshine hours + best month).
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