Toronto ranks 2nd in global City of Opportunity study by PwC

We’ve known for years that Toronto is an exceptional city in which to conduct business for a broad number of reasons. It provides our business  exceptional foundations in terms of talent, technology, access and quality of life that allows us to offer the expansive fundraising services that we do. A new report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers confirms that Toronto is indeed a ‘City of Opportunity’ as Toronto now ranks 2nd amongst 26 leading global metropolises!

This is the fourth analysis conducted by PwC  and the most comprehensive one yet as more cities were added to the study than ever before. Cities under consideration had to be deemed leading centres of finance, culture and commerce. A wide variety of measurements were considered, evaluated and scored to provide the composite rankings. None more important than the next these aggregate scores were designed to determine which major urban hubs around the world were the most dynamic in which to live and work. It provided us with a great sense of pride that Toronto ranks second on such a competitive analysis. The very fabric of a city is assessed in the study, from the education  and transport infrastructure to the cost of doing business and the access to technology. The results achieved by Toronto reaffirmed to us how the city has come into its own as a globally great place to operate our business, to live and to share in the talent of the people who live in our city.

The expanded survey sees Toronto in second behind only New York and ahead of San Francisco, Stockholm and Sydney. While there are many wonderful cities reviewed in the study the cost of doing business, congestion or lack of commitment to sustainability sees them fall further down the rankings. Why I find the survey fascinating is that it looks at such a detailed spectrum of what creates a cityscape and what makes one city stand out above another. When you ask what makes a city vibrant you can’t just focus on the arts if the traffic and crime overshadow it, how valuable is affordable housing if top employers aren’t attracted to a city. The survey is also fascinating due to a forward thinking approach to what shapes a city in the 21st century, assessing topics that include education, technology, innovation and the ease of doing business.

I’d highly recommend that you make some time to look at the entire report (a link will be at the foot of today’s post) but I wanted to review where Toronto ranked amongst the 25 other challengers in some key measurements. The report does an excellent job of detailing exactly how these composite ‘sector’ scores are reached which adds depth to the complexity and value of the measurements.

• Intellectual Capital and Innovation – 2nd
• Technology Readiness – 12th
• Transportation and Infrastructure – 13th
• Health, Safety and Security – 2nd
• Sustainability – 2nd
• Economic Clout – 7th
• Ease of Doing Business – 5th
• Cost – 5th
• Demographics & Livability – 3rd
• Lifestyle Assets – 4th

As you can see the report drills each of these 10 sectors down to a fascinating level, comparing classroom size for ‘Intellectual Capital’ or inflation statistics under ‘Economic Clout’. There is a depth of good reading included about how the world is changing and which cities are best positioned for the medium and long term market as global power shifts toward Asia in many cases while traditional European and North American centres reinvent their own profiles. An excellent piece of research in general and particularly for Toronto.

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