Time Out certainly has some ideas about what makes a city brilliant – the key is a well balanced offering of culture, nightlife, good food and cool neighbourhoods to explore, as well as vital infrastructure like public transport. You can read our ranking of the best cities on the planet here.
However, we aren’t the only ones pondering this planet’s cities. The IESE Cities In Motion Index has been researching which ones are the most dynamic, and to do so it’s evaluated 183 different hubs and assessed them based on nine different criteria.
Those are: human capital, social cohesion, economy, governance, environment, mobility and transportation, urban planning, international profile and technology, and for the third year in a row, London has claimed first place.
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Why? Well, it gained a perfect score of 100 overall, largely thanks to criteria such as human capital, governance, urban planning and its international profile. London boasts great universities, after all, and a whole load of world-renowned cultural institutions. The report also credited the UK capital’s high-quality public transit system and commitment to sustainable mobility (Lime, we’re looking at you), as well as ‘institutional stability’.
However, it was outperformed by two Scottish cities when it comes to cultural and social inclusion – Edinburgh and Glasgow.
New York claimed second place, with a score of 96.52, and Paris claimed third with a score of 83.4. In fact, Europe dominates the top 20, claiming 10 of the places but three American and two Australian cities made their way in, as well as three in Asia – read on for the crowning cities, or check out the full report here.
These are the world’s 20 most dynamic cities, according to a new Index
- London, UK
- New York, USA
- Paris, France
- Tokyo, Japan
- Berlin, Germany
- Washington DC, USA
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Oslo, Norway
- Singapore
- San Francisco, USA
- Seoul, South Korea
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Chicago, USA
- Zurich, Switzerland
- Munich, Germany
- Melbourne, Australia
- Hamburg, Germany
- Boston, USA
- Sydney, Australia
- Stockholm, Sweden
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