UN study names Vienna the most prosperous city.

[Syt]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/23/the-worlds-most-prosperous-cities-2012_n_2005482.html

World's Most Prosperous Cities: U.N. Report Puts Vienna At Number One Spot

The world might want to look to Vienna, Austria to solve all of its problems.

In a new report entitled State Of The World Cities 2012/2013, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (U.N.-Habitat) ranked the world's cities in terms of prosperity, which they evaluated based on a city's productivity, infrastructure development, quality of life, social equality and environmental sustainability. Vienna, part of a country still struggling with the european debt crisis, topped the U.N.-Habitat list.

The report listed unemployment, food shortages, strain on financial institutions and political instability as issues plaguing the world economy, and suggested that the world's most prosperous cities must play a "vigorous role" in the economic recovery.

"Cities are a remedy to the global crisis," the report stated. "They provide ready, flexible and creative platforms that can mitigate the effects of regional and global crises in a pragmatic, balances and efficient way."

Despite worldwide economic, political and environmental turmoil, cities like Vienna; Paris, France; Zurich, Switzerland; and Stockholm, Sweden continue to make strides in all measures of prosperity, according to the report.

New York, N.Y., the only U.S. city out of 69 cities worldwide listed in the report, didn't make it into the top 10, with a prosperity score of 0.825. Cities with a score of 0.900 and above were deemed to have "very solid prosperity factors" whereas cities with "weak prosperity factors" fell scored between 0.500 and 0.599. Although New York ranked highly in productivity, quality of life, infrastructure and environment, the Big Apple received a meager 0.502 in the equity index compared to Austria with 0.883.

Here are the 10 most prosperous cities, according to the U.N.

10. Paris
9. Stockholm
8. Melbourne
7. London
6. Tokyo
5. Dublin & Copenhagen (tie)
3. Helsinki & Oslo (tie)
1. Vienna

:balloflight:

[Faeelin]

Isn't Paris the city where there were riots by immigrants over the shitty ghettoes they're stuck in?

[mongers]

View from a ferris wheel?

[Valmy]

If cities are so key to breaking out of the crisis why are all the cities they picked right near the crisis centers, in Europe and Japan? 

[Valmy]

Isn't Paris the city where there were riots by immigrants over the shitty ghettoes they're stuck in?

They were just showing how well they are assimilating.

[Syt]

IIRC the banlieues are suburbs of Paris, not part of Paris proper.

[Duque de Bragança]

IIRC the banlieues are suburbs of Paris, not part of Paris proper.

Not that Versailles or Neuilly-sur-Seine were rioting, either. 

[Zanza]

So they did only consider New York in America and no city in Germany, but they did list Bamako in Mali and Conakry in Guinea. I wonder how they picked their 69 cities for their "most prosperous" cities report.

[MadImmortalMan]

Damn that equity index. 

[garbon]

So they did only consider New York in America and no city in Germany, but they did list Bamako in Mali and Conakry in Guinea. I wonder how they picked their 69 cities for their "most prosperous" cities report.

Unfortunately their actual report is really unclear on which cities they considered. I read the language in that article stating that New York was the only city that made it into the top 69.

(Their actual report for instance has tables detailing out population changes over time for 4 German cities and 30 American cities or so along with a bunch of other places.

[Syt]

I haven't looked at the study, but the HuffPo listed a number of indices that made up the total score of the cities - I'm guessing they may have taken existing studies and distilled them into one score? If so, they may not have all scores for all major cities, thus explaining the odd selection?

[Zanza]

The list on page 122 and 123 has exactly 69 cities, so I assume those are the ones that were considered.

[garbon]

The list on page 122 and 123 has exactly 69 cities, so I assume those are the ones that were considered.

But then why does 129 on list population and growth on so many other cities? Those listed on 122 and 123 just seem completely haphazard then.

[garbon]

Actually I'm more inclined to think that the news outlets are missing the mark on this prosperity index listing. I think those cities are more examples along the spectrum of the ranges you see using this new city prosperity index measure.  I think it is probably very unlikely that Berlin and San Francisco would get a lower prosperity index score than say Monrovia (which has the lowest score on the scale).

[Zanza]

Actually I'm more inclined to think that the news outlets are missing the mark on this prosperity index listing. I think those cities are more examples along the spectrum of the ranges you see using this new city prosperity index measure.  I think it is probably very unlikely that Berlin and San Francisco would get a lower prosperity index score than say Monrovia (which has the lowest score on the scale).

Parts of Berlin might.