In 2022, Amsterdam was ranked the ninth-best city to live in by the Economist Intelligence Unit[28] and 12th on quality of living for environment and infrastructure by Mercer.[29] The city was ranked 4th place globally as a top tech hub in 2019.[30] The Port of Amsterdam is the fifth largest in Europe.[31] The KLM hub and Amsterdam's main airport, Schiphol, is the busiest airport in the Netherlands, third in Europe. The Dutch capital is one of the most multicultural cities in the world, with about 180 nationalities represented.[32] Immigration and ethnic segregation in Amsterdam is a current issue.[33]

Amsterdam's notable residents throughout its history include painters Rembrandt and Vincent van Gogh, 17th-century philosophers Baruch Spinoza, John Locke, René Descartes, and the Holocaust victim and diarist Anne Frank.