World's 100 'selfiest cities' ranked

World's 100 'selfiest cities' ranked

Ellen DeGeneres may have taken the world's most retweeted selfie at the Oscars earlier this month, but the city she took it in — Los Angeles — is nowhere near the top of the list when it comes to taking them.

According to Time magazine, which published a list of the "top 100 selfiest cities in the world," Makati City in the Philippines is the "Selfie Capital of the World," with 258 selfie-takers per 100,000 people.

New York City's Manhattan ranks second among selfie-takers, with 202 per 100,000 people. Miami is third, with 155 selfie-takers per 100,000. Anaheim and Santa Ana, Calif., rank fourth, with 147 selfie-takers per 100,000 people.

Los Angeles, though, is not ranked among the top 100.

It's not entirely clear what makes a city more popular than another for taking selfies, other than being a tourist destination. Anaheim, for example, is home to Disneyland; Manhattan has Times Square; Miami has, well, a popular beach.

To come up with its list, Time used data from Instagram over 10 days in late January and early February, studying over 400,000 Instagram photos tagged “selfie” that included geographic coordinates.

"For every city in the world of at least 250,000 residents, we then counted the number of selfies taken within 5 miles and divided by the population of that city," Time said of its methodology.

Of course, the methodology is far from perfect. Not everyone who takes a selfie tags it as one, not all photos tagged as “selfie” are selfies, and most do not include a location.

For those wondering if the study was a breach of privacy, Time said the selfie data is not being permanently stored on its servers per  Instagram’s terms of service.

The Top Ten Selfiest Cities in the World

1. Makati City and Pasig, Philippines (258 selfie-takers per 100,000 people)
2. Manhattan, N.Y. (202 selfie-takers per 100,000 people)
3. Miami, Fla. | 155 selfie-takers per 100,000 people
4. Anaheim and Santa Ana, Calif. | 147 selfie-takers per 100,000 people
5. Petaling Jaya, Malaysia | 141 selfie-takers per 100,000 people
6. Tel Aviv, Israel | 139 selfie-takers per 100,000 people
7. Manchester, England | 114 selfie-takers per 100,000 people
8. Milan, Italy | 108 selfie-takers per 100,000 people
9. Cebu City, Philippines | 99 selfie-takers per 100,000 people
10. George Town, Malaysia | 95 selfie-takers per 100,000 people

Click here for the rest of the top 100.

[Source: Time]

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