Publication

City Competitiveness Redefined: which cities will thrive in the era of climate change?

Traditional economic and infrastructure indicators are no longer sufficient to gauge a city’s long-term competitiveness. Cities must build resilience into every aspect of planning and operations – from changing climates to energy and water security – or risk becoming unattractive to investors and citizens.

Last updated: October 2024

How do cities strengthen their appeal and continue to grow? How do they maintain a reputation for being a great place to locate a business or start a family?

For city authorities and regional governments, these are profound questions, ones whose answers are rooted in an ever more complex combination of factors.

Air quality, transport infrastructure, access to education, affordable and quality housing, sources of meaningful work, the cost of land. And increasingly, a city’s preparedness for the intensifying threats of climate change: can a city deal with flooding, urban heat, storm damage and all the knock-on effects on people’s lives and livelihoods?

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Hear from report author Shruti Rathore, about how competition between cities can be an engine of improvement.

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City Competitiveness Redefined is a new report from our cities team. It explores how these new factors are reshaping future city competitiveness in the eyes of businesses, investors and wider public.

It measures 63 cities against 37 competitiveness indicators – of which a quarter are focused on actions that interact with climate change. The indicators are comprehensive, rating investor attractiveness, quality and range of infrastructure, liveability, and urban management and governance. The report helps to reveal how these factors interconnect and lead to sustainable urban growth. You can also view the analysis in our data visualisation tool.

From Vancouver to Lima, Istanbul to Hanoi, our report analyses a diverse range of cities, to produce a compelling picture of what will drives city success stories in the 21st century. Our overarching goal is to help any city to better understand its own potential, to address competitiveness in a joined-up manner, and achieve beneficial growth built on greater resilience to climate change.

When quality of life indicators are taken into account, new “world cities” such as Vancouver, São Paulo, Vienna and Copenhagen have the potential to match - or even surpass - global leaders such as Singapore, London, Paris, New York and San Francisco. Image: Vancouver, Canada.