The 2025 TomTom Traffic Index is out, and it seems to be the same story for the Philippines. Just like last year, Davao City has the worst traffic in the country—even more so than Manila. These are the only two of our cities included in TomTom’s list.
In the global context, however, its ranking has dropped from third in 2024 to 12th worst in terms of congestion in its city area (“the densest areas that capture 20% of all trips within the city connected area”). When ranking cities by the metropolitan area (“trip-dense regions that account for 80% of all trips within the city-connected areas”), Davao moves up to 11th. Manila, meanwhile, ranks 40th worst in the world in terms of city congestion. In terms of metropolitan area congestion, its ranking jumps to 14th across the globe.
For better context, let’s talk numbers, and let’s focus on the metropolitan area this time, as that paints a better picture of how bad traffic in the National Capital Region is. Congestion in Davao City was at 58.2%, slightly worse than in 2024, while Manila’s was at 57.3%, which was actually lower than the year prior, but still quite bad.
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Arequipa in Peru has the worst traffic of all cities in the world, followed by Bogota in Colombia, and Mumbai in India. Fortunately, the Philippines is completely out of the top 10, while countries like Colombia, India, and Peru have multiple entries. Among only the Asian countries, however, Davao is fourth, and Manila is fifth worst. Anyway, we’ve listed below all the cities across the globe, and we extended it to the top 15, so both Davao and Manila are included in the picture.
2025 TomTom Traffic Index: 15 Most congested metropolitan centers
- Arequipa, Peru – 68.8%
- Bogota, Colombia – 67.4%
- Mumbai, India – 61.5%
- Medellin, Colombia – 60.7%
- Bengaluru, India – 60%
- Bandung, Indonesia – 60%
- Bucharest, Romania – 59.7%
- Cali, Colombia – 59.5%
- Lima, Peru – 58.8%
- Mexico City, Mexico – 58.4%
- Davao City, Philippines – 58.2%
- Istanbul, Turkey – 57.7%
- Lublin, Poland – 57.6%
- Manila, Philippines – 57.3%
- Barranquilla, Colombia – 57.2%
TomTom also measures the time lost in rush hour per year, and in this regard, Davao is tied for 8th with Medellin in Colombia at 129 hours lost annually. Manila, meanwhile, is at a close 11th at 123 hours. Arequipa is undefeated and is still at first, and a fellow Peruvian city in Lima comes in at second. You can view the top 12 cities below—again, extended to include both cities from the Philippines.
2025 TomTom Traffic Index: Cities where motorists lost the most time during rush hour per year
- Arequipa, Peru – 155 hours
- Lima, Peru – 149 hours
- Bucharest, Romania – 143 hours
- Bogota, Colombia – 141 hours
- Barranquilla, Colombia – 140 hours
- Bengaluru, India – 135 hours
- Mumbai, India – 134 hours
- Medellina, Colombia – 129 hours
- Davao City, Philippines – 129 hours
- Cartagena, Colombia – 125 hours
- Trujillo, Peru – 125 hours
- Manila, Philippines – 123 hours
In terms of average distance traveled in 15 minutes, Davao City is tied for eighth with India’s Chennai and Mumbai, Egypt’s Port Said, and Colombia’s Bogota at 5.2km/15min. Manila City is at 13th at 5.4km/15min.
All of these are averages and are based on a study, not absolute. If your experiences on the road differ from what you read here, that shouldn’t come as a surprise. If that’s the case, though, then we’d like to hear your thoughts, too—the comments section is open.
