The most attractive cities in the world: New York leads, Prague fell to 51st place
New York topped the list of cities most attractive in terms of global capital, people and innovation, followed by London and Paris. Last year’s winners remain the most attractive cities in the Global Cities Index ranking compiled by the consulting company AT Kearney. Prague only finished in the sixth place, but according to the study, it has relatively good prospects for growth.
Study Global City Index evaluated the world metropolis according to 27 criteria in 5 main categories: entrepreneurial activity, human capital, availability of information, cultural enjoyment and political engagement. In addition to the mentioned cities, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Chicago, Singapore, Beijing and Washington were in the top ten. Compared to last year, only Beijing and Singapore swapped places in the elite ten.
Among the 125 rated cities, on the other hand, Prague fell by 4 places compared to 2014. It thus ranks 51st behind 50th Cairo and just ahead of Budapest and Rio de Janeiro. The reason for the drop is primarily greater competition, as 41 more cities were rated this year than last year. “Prague has improved its overall score, but other cities are also moving up. Our capital is doing well especially in terms of human capital. Success in this category is driven by the ever-increasing level and number of people with university education,” says Jiří Steif, managing partner of AT Kearney’s Prague office.
In addition to this ranking, AT Kearney is also compiling the Global Cities Outlook. In other words, a look at the potential of cities in the next 10 to 20 years. Here it is evaluated according to 13 measures in the categories of level of social services, economy, innovation and stability.
In this ranking, San Francisco is the leader mainly because of the large number of innovative companies. In addition to New York and London, the top 10 includes Boston, Zurich, Houston, Munich, Stockholm, Amsterdam and Seoul. Prague is on a very respectable 37th place, ahead of Warsaw and Vienna, for example. “For the Czech metropolis, this assessment is a very good promise for a better location in the future,” concludes Jiří Steif from AT Kearney.