With technology and transport infrastructure connecting the world like never before, millennials
- generally people born between 1980 and 2000 - have become the most well-travelled and
tech-savvy human generation to date.
While previous generations generally chose to settle down and establish roots in a fixed
geographic area, millennials are heading out in the pursuit of new opportunities.
With awareness of the environment, social equality and wellbeing running particularly
high amongst this demographic - certain cities are attracting more millennials than others.
These urban areas generally offer well-paid jobs that improve living standards.
They also take a progressive and forward-thinking approach to social equality and environmental challenges
while providing reliable transport systems and good levels of public safety.
Research published in 2018 by Nestpick looked at 110 cities around the world and scored
them out of 10 against a number of criteria that are key for young people looking to move abroad.
The criteria consisted of 17 different measures under four distinct headings.
“Business Ecosystem” which included measures for employment, start-ups and tourism.
“Essentials” which had measures for housing, food, transportation, health, internet connectivity,
education and access to contraception.
“Openess” which covered gender equality, immigration tolerance, personal choice and
LGBT friendliness
and “recreation” which had a measure for nightlife along with a beer ranking and a
festival assessment.
Here, we take a look at the cities making the global top 10. Top 10 Millennial Cities 2018
At number 10 it’s Manchester in the United Kingdom.
Famed for its Premiere League football team, Manchester narrowly edged out Hamburg in Germany
to take out 10th place on the list.
With high scores for immigration tolerance, personal freedoms, LGBT friendliness and free
access to contraception, the city’s relatively low cost of living as compared to other UK
urban centres helped it crack the list.
The city of Cologne comes in at number nine with similar credentials to Manchester
but with a particularly strong score for its nightlife.
However Cologne did underperform in some areas with low education and employment scores bringing
down its overall ranking.
Next up is New York City, in the United States.
Despite scoring a perfect 10 for business start-ups, and excelling in tourism, transport,
and entertainment, the lack of affordable housing and dining options coupled with limited
access to free healthcare kept the big apple at eighth place.
While Barcelona performed well in the tourism, nightlife and entertainment categories, it’s
below average scores for internet connectivity, housing affordability and employment opportunities
dropped it into seventh place.
In at number six we have the first of three Canadian cities to make the top 10.
Offering universal healthcare and being amongst the highest ranking cities for personal freedoms
and equality, Vancouver’s only let-down was its high cost of living - where it achieved
one of the lowest rankings in the top 10.
Staying in Canada, Toronto takes 5th place.
Much like Vancouver, the city fared well across the healthcare, equality and personal freedom
categories while leading the charge as Canada’s best city for business start-ups and entertainment.
Arguably one of the most liberal cities in the world, the Dutch capital Amsterdam achieved
the highest score for personal freedoms and liberties.
Amsterdam also scored well for entertainment, nightlife, and LGBT friendliness but was ranked
low in the housing affordability and food categories.
The UK’s capital takes third place with scores of nine or above in seven of the 17 categories.
Coming in as the highest ranked education city on the list, London’s business and
tourism sectors, tolerance to migrants and nightlife all helped it to score highly.
It’s cost of living however saw it ranked as the sixth most expensive city out of all 110 analysed.
Just missing the top-spot is the third Canadian city on the list, Montreal.
The French speaking city of Canada’s Quebec province excelled across all categories only
slipping below a score of five on one measure, for public transport.
Continuing Canada’s tolerance to immigration, access to universal healthcare and good gender
equality, the city also has a thriving nightlife and entertainment scene, and is highly-ranked
for start-ups while offering a range of affordable housing options.
Topping the list with good results across the board is Germany's vibrant capital, Berlin.
With near perfect scores for business start-ups, LGBT friendliness, festivals and a 10 out of 10
for it’s famous nightlife, Berlin is the stand-out city attracting millennials in 2018.
We’d love to know your opinion on what makes a great millennial city, so please share your
thoughts in the comments below.
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