Barcelona: eighth city in the world to live, research and work

Barcelona is the eighth city in the world to live, visit, research, and work. This is stated in the World’s Best Cities 2021 ranking, a world benchmark report produced by Resonance Consultancy. London tops the list, followed by New York, Paris, Moscow, Tokyo, Dubai, and Singapore. Behind Barcelona are Los Angeles and Madrid.

The report highlights the climate of the Catalan capital, its beaches, parks, architecture, and neighborhoods that “march to their own artistic, sophisticated, and bohemian beat.” All this places the city in the Top 10 of the ‘Place’ category of the ranking. Furthermore, Barcelona is in third place in terms of nightlife and fifth in Trip-Advisor reviews. It also gives a favorable assessment of the programs carried out to control the effects of runaway tourism, “as real estate investors take flats only to rent them on Airbnb, exhausting an already limited offer.”

What factors does the ranking take into account?

The report classifies cities in metropolitan areas with more than 1 million inhabitants. To assess them, it combines core statistics with qualitative assessments of their inhabitants and visitors, grouped into six categories: Place, Product, People, Prosperity, Programming, and Promotion.

This year, the report has taken into account three new factors in drawing up the list. In the Prosperity category, two new indicators have been added, the unemployment rate in cities from July 2020, as well as the Gini Index of Income Inequality. Another factor added was the number of cases of COVID-19 per million inhabitants, in the Place category, counting from 31 July 2020.

Enhancing the value of experience

In addition to these three factors, it also adds other standards such as household income, climate, or crime. According to Chris Fair, CEO of Resonant Consultancy, this distinguishes the methodology of this ranking from others, as they also incorporate user-generated data, with which they can quantify experiences such as nightlife, restaurants, or shops. Fair explains that there is a clear correlation between factors such as mentions in social networks, nightlife, culinary recommendations, and culture; with the number of visitors the city receives, as well as with investment and economic growth. “Restarting this urban experience software will be even more important than infrastructure investments when it comes to a city’s recovery from this crisis,” the CEO states in the report.

Studying in Barcelona

Education is also part of the classification. The report assesses educational achievements, unemployment rates, university life, and the place of its schools and universities worldwide.

Would you like to come and study in Barcelona? At TBS in Barcelona, we offer you the chance to live this experience with a Bachelor in Management, a Master in Management, or up to five MSc programs.