Cities of Opportunity 7: The living city
Our report’s major headline this year is that London maintains its #1 ranking and, in fact, widens its lead over the rest of our 30 cities. But beyond the steady rise of the British capital since our first study in 2007, many other headlines lead to compelling stories. Most notably in Cities of Opportunity 7, we are struck by the close relationship between success in our study and a city’s ability to provide services that citizens need—good quality of living, senior wellbeing, housing, and disaster preparedness among them.
Key findings
- European cities perform well at the top of this year's study, with London claiming pole position at #1 and Toronto in second place — up from fourth in 2014.
- Paris follows at #3, with Amsterdam and New York locked in a virtual tie for fourth. The Big Apple drops from #2 in the last edition.
- The study finds high scores in the human elements of urban life show the strongest relation to city success. These traits include good quality of life, senior wellbeing, public transport systems, housing, literacy and enrolment, and disaster preparedness.
- Tokyo came top in exposure to risk – and top in the ability to deal with it – outperforming all other cities in natural disaster preparedness. Amsterdam has the second highest disaster vulnerability but the fifth highest preparedness.
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