Overall Results

Most highly ranked cities score well in one or two pillars.

Overall Results

London tops the Index, ranking second in both People and Profit as well as ranking 11th against the Planet sub-index. London is one of few high performing balanced cities in the Index with similar scores across the three pillars.

Most highly ranked cities score well in one or two pillars. This is exemplified by Singapore and Hong Kong, both of which are in the top 10 driven by very high Profit rankings and middle of the road People and Planet rankings. Most of the top 10 cities do have very high Planet scores - these are Northern European cities, exemplified by Stockholm and Frankfurt which have been highly successful in combining economic prosperity and environmental stewardship.

The U.S. has four cities in the upper quartile. The Profit pillar is typically strong for these cities, New York ranked 14th overall and 4th in Profit. Interestingly, Seattle, ranked 19th, is the epitome of a balanced city, ranking around the upper quartile in all three pillars. We include a large sample of U.S. cities in the Index and 15 of them rank between 50th and 75th, an exceptionally consistent pattern. These cities are mid to low ranking across all pillars, highlighting the complex challenge that post-industrial cities face. Most of the U.S. cities are in the process of a post-industrial transition, where cities are having to balance immediate investment in response to change with long-term sustainability. Sometimes this investment comes at the expense of legacy employment and with a greater sense of competition between city peers for available investment. We describe the citizen experience in these cities as Post-industrial Opportunists.

Sixteen European cities are in the upper quartile. Many of these, Amsterdam and Vienna, for example, are balanced cities where our measures suggest that the needs of citizens, business and the environment are all served well. Cities in Southern Europe such as Spain, Italy, and Greece, score less well in the Profit Pillar, while cities more to the east such as Prague, Warsaw and Moscow face greater challenges associated with their sustainability agenda.

"Our neighborhood is very good. People are so caring, and we can spend a lot of time with our neighbors."

Pooja, 44, New Delhi, India

Many of the European cities are increasingly reliant on automated systems and data to support their effective operation. They are also sensitive to corporate priorities for what makes a successful and sustainable city. We term the citizen experience in these cities Balanced Innovators.

In Asia, we find a clear distinction between the well-established Seoul and Tokyo and a large group of cities in China and emerging markets. Of 23 cities in the sample, 14 are in the bottom quartile, facing significant challenges across all pillars. The performance gap affecting cities in the bottom quarter of the ranking is particularly daunting - figure 2 highlights that scores are disproportionately low. Delivering sustainable growth from such a baseline will require huge progress against the agenda set out by the UN SDGs. These cities are characterized by higher levels of informality. We have developed two models to describe these cities - Evolutionary Cities and Fast-growing Megacities, reflecting the scale of cities in these clusters and the balance between organized and informal activities in the cities.

All cities in Latin America can be found in the lowest quartile. All seven cities in the sample are clustered within a range of 10 cities at the top end of quartile rankings. Latin American cities score relatively well in People and Planet but do less well in the Profit rankings. This is a common pattern for lower ranking cities. Citizen experience in Latin American cities most closely fits the Evolutionary Cities cluster.

Overall, the results of the Index highlight that a cluster of relatively small European cities are particularly successful in balancing well-being and economic performance and are taking steps to mitigate some aspects of environmental impact. However, further down the scale, cities which represent the fastest growing economies, in Asia, South America and Africa all face huge challenges to deliver citizen-centric growth while mitigating wider environmental impacts. Analysis of the three pillars provides further insight into these challenges.