Everything was ranked across five subcategories: economic potential; business friendliness; connectivity; human capital and lifestyle; and economic efficiency.
Several cities in Central and Eastern Europe have been featured in fDi Intelligence’s flagship European Cities and Regions of the Future Index 2024.
The Bulgarian capital Sofia took second place in the top 10 in the category large cities, economic efficiency.
And the cities of Burgas, Ruse, Varna and Plovdiv appeared in the ranking of small regions with the greatest economic efficiency.
Frankfurt in Germany; Wroclaw in Poland; and Luxembourg City, the capital of the eponymous district, all moved up the rankings to top their categories: large cities, medium-sized cities and small towns.
Meanwhile, London confirmed its leadership in the category of large cities, while Barcelona was the best city for its FDI strategy. Among large regions, the Paris region (Ile-de-France) won, as did the North Holland and Dublin regions.
The study assessed 330 European cities, divided by population into five groups – major, large, medium, small and micro cities – and 141 European regions, divided into three groups – large, medium and small regions. Thirty-eight local enterprise partnerships in the UK were also assessed.
The European Cities and Regions of the Future 2024 ranking collects surveys from European investment promotion agencies in another category: the Foreign Direct Investment Strategy category.
The UK capital is Europe’s best city for talent and lifestyle, the data shows. It is one of the best-connected cities, offers the best business environment and has the most economic potential of any major European city. Amsterdam follows closely behind, with a similar combination of talent, connections, business environment and economic potential, while Dublin came in third, thanks in large part to its economic prospects.
In the large city category, Frankfurt beat out its German counterpart Hamburg to win this year’s ranking in its category, with Dusseldorf coming in third.
In the medium-sized city category, Poland’s Wroclaw made a statement by taking first place, ahead of Zurich – last year’s winner – and Vilnius.
In the small cities category, Luxembourg topped the ranking, while Zug confirmed its leadership in the micro-cities category.
The Paris Region (Île-de-France) confirmed its dominance among the large regions ahead of a decisive year. In just a few months, the region will host the 2024 Olympic Games, which will see a host of new infrastructures that will further enhance its competitiveness. The West Midlands came in second, with North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany third.
In the medium-sized region category, North Holland again came in first place; the same applies to the Dublin Region in the small region category.
