Cape Town has ranked 77th overall in a recent Nestpick global study covering thousands of cities and using 16 criteria to rank the top 100 cities for Millennials to live or visit.
Furnished housing aggregator, Nestpick, have produced a ranking which compares 100 cities worldwide to discover which offer Millennials the best standards of living based on general characteristics of the generation. With their finger on the pulse of migration patterns of young professionals all over the world, Nestpick combined their industry knowledge with an intensive research project, examining the cities by 16 factors, including housing score, tolerance to immigration, equality and a ranking of nightlife options. The research is telling as to why Millennials are visiting and relocating to certain hubs, clarifying the unique appeals of each location.
“At Nestpick we’ve witnessed firsthand a clear pattern of migration among Millennials from all over the world to specific cities.” states Ömer Kücükdere Managing Director of Nestpick. “UNWTO data confirms that travellers among this generation choose these same cities for their leisure time, confirming a clear appeal of these cities over others for this group. We set out to better understand the factors which combine to create this phenomenon.”
Overall, the top ten most popular Millennial cities are revealed below. The sub categories have been combined into four main categories for ease of access, but the full results for each of the 16 criteria can be seen on the results page: www.nestpick.com/millennial-city-ranking/
Further Insights
The top ranked cities by criteria. Explanations of the ranking and score criteria can be found at the end of this article.
- Employment Ranking: Brugge, Belgium, scored highest for cities with under 1 million inner-city inhabitants, and Bangkok, Thailand scored highest for cities with a population of over 1 million.
- Startup Score: San Franciso, USA scored highest for cities with under 1 million inner-city inhabitants, and Los Angeles, USA scored highest for cities with a population of over 1 million.
- Tourism Score: Venice, Italy scored highest for cities with under 1 million inner-city inhabitants, and Bangkok, Thailand scored highest for cities with a population of over 1 million.
- Housing Ranking: Athens, Greece scored highest for cities with under 1 million inner-city inhabitants, and Guadalajara, Mexico scored highest for cities with a population of over 1 million.
- Transport Score: Oslo, Norway scored highest for cities with under 1 million inner-city inhabitants, and Paris, France scored highest for cities with a population of over 1 million.
- Health Rank: French cities scored highest for cities with under 1 million inner-city inhabitants, along with Paris, France scoring highest for cities with a population of over 1 million.
- Food Score: Brno, Czech Republic scored highest for cities with under 1 million inner-city inhabitants, and Medellin, Colombia scored highest for cities with a population of over 1 million.
- Internet Speed: Austin, USA scored highest for cities with under 1 million inner-city inhabitants, and Prague, Czech Republic scored highest for cities with a population of over 1 million.
- Apple Rank: Geneva, Switzerland scored highest for cities with under 1 million inner-city inhabitants, and Cologne, Germany scored highest for cities with a population of over 1 million.
- Access to Contraception: English cities scored highest for cities with under 1 million inner-city inhabitants, and Chinese cities scored highest for cities with a population of over 1 million.
- Gender Equality: Helsinki, Finland scored highest for cities with under 1 million inner-city inhabitants, and Stockholm, Sweden scored highest for cities with a population of over 1 million.
- Immigration Tolerance: Canadian cities Toronto and Montreal scored highest for cities with under 1 million inner-city inhabitants, and Irish cities Dublin and Cork scored highest for cities with a population of over 1 million.
- LGBT Friendliness: San Francisco, USA scored highest for cities with under 1 million inner-city inhabitants, and Amsterdam, Netherlands scored highest for cities with a population of over 1 million.
- Nightscene Score: Graz, Austria scored highest for cities with under 1 million inner-city inhabitants, and Berlin, Germany and Paris, France scored joint highest for cities with a population of over 1 million.
- Beer Score: Brno, Czech Republic scored highest for cities with under 1 million inner-city inhabitants, and Beijing, China scored joint highest for cities with a population of over 1 million.
- Festival Ranking: Brugge, Belgium scored highest for cities with under 1 million inner-city inhabitants, and Amsterdam, Netherlands scored joint highest for cities with a population of over 1 million.
Business Ecosystem
A thriving business ecosystem supports a growing millennial community. One of the characteristics of the age group is that in tends to gravitate towards cities with higher start-up funding.
- Employment Score: Before moving somewhere, savvy Millennials make sure that working is an available option. Often, young people relocate for the purpose of increasing their employment opportunities or for professional advancement, therefore the possibility of gainful employment was selected as a crucial factor in the millennial city ranking. The employment score was calculated based on unemployment data from the OECD, with the lowest unemployment rate equating to the best employment score.
- Startup Score: As digital natives, Millennials make up a large part of the startup scene and the startup scene offers a unique appeal to Millennials. The startup score was calculated by dividing the population by the total number of startup companies. Using business registration data from each individual city.
- Tourist Score: High levels of tourism within a city not only offers entry level jobs to all age groups, but attracts younger crowds, looking to explore popular cities. Travelling to a city is also one of the first steps to relocating there, and as such is an essential for Millennials. The tourism ranking was calculated based on the number of overnight stays in each city, on the age group 18 to 35 yrs. using data from the UNWTO.
The Essentials
These factors were considered essential for Millennials to survive and enjoy a good quality of life in the city.
- Housing Score: Affordable rent is one of the hot topics for Millennials today. With rent ever increasing and salaries not so much, affordable housing is a huge draw for Millennials. The London Governing Authority recommends that one person needs a minimum of 39 square metres for their living space. To produce our Housing Score, we used rental listings from each city to find out the monthly cost of renting 39 square metres, and then ranked the cities from most affordable to most expensive.
- Transport Score: The number of Millennials who use cars is decreasing. Yet they still need to be able to get around a city easily to commute to work, to travel to meet friends at a reasonable cost. The transport score factored in the length of the metro network, the number of metro stops, the length of the tram network and the number of tram lines per capita. It also considered the availability of Uber, and the existence of a bike-sharing scheme.
- Health Ranking: Millennials are highly health conscious, and access to decent healthcare and fitness options are important to this demographic. The health ranking was calculated based on The World Health Report conducted by the UN.
- Food Ranking: The food ranking was calculated based upon the affordability of a monthly cost of food, with data provided by Expatistan and reviewed individually for each city in the ranking.
- Internet Speed Ranking: As digital natives, having widely available access to fast internet is essential for Millennials, both socially and for work. The internet speed ranking was produced based on data provided by internet providers in each of the respective cities.
- Apple Store Score: While Apple is not the most widely used technology brand, iconically, it is one of the brands Millennials most associate with. The number of stores in a city shows not only how easy access to technical support is for citizens, but it is also an indication of how technologically engaged a population is; the more investment in Apple products is a good indicator for investment in technology goods overall. The Apple Store score was calculated based on the number of Apple Stores per capita.
Openness
Millennials are defined by their tolerant, open and live-and-let-live mind sets.
- Access to Contraception: Being highly educated about sexual health, having access contraception when it is needed is a necessity for Millennials. The Access to Contraception score was based on Model-Based Estimates and Projections Of Family Planning Indicators 2016 produced by the UN.
- Gender Equality: Believing that one gender is superior to another is an outdated concept for Millennials. The Gender Equality ranking was based upon The Global Gender Gap Report 2016 by the World Economic Forum.
- Immigration Tolerance: It’s been well reported that the demographic are far more tolerant than previous generations when it comes to immigration. When moving to different cities, potentially abroad, millennials will also be better accepted in a city with high immigration tolerance. The Immigration Tolerance ranking was taken from the 2016 Social Progress Index conducted by The Social Progress Imperative
- LGBT Friendliness: The majority of Millennials have a hard time comprehending a lack of tolerance for another person’s preference. The LGBT friendliness score was based upon independent research and data from ILGA Annual Rainbow Report. We also took into account legislation as well as society acceptance and inclusion.
Recreation
Work hard, play hard.
- Nightscene: Because of their age, Millennials are the driving force of the night scene. The Night Scene Ranking considers the number of clubs and the opening times.
- Beer Score: While everyone likes to relax with a beer, Millennials are price sensitive therefore we measured this factor by affordability. The Beer Score was ranked based upon the affordability of 500ml domestic beer in a bar in each city. We took the price from 20 different bars including bars within same brand hotels to have a comparable price.
Festival Score: Where Millennials go to relax after a year of hustling and side hustling and long hours working in a start up. The Festival Score was ranked based upon the number of annual music festivals per capita in and around the city ranked.
City populations are taken from the number of citizens living in the city proper, not the surrounding metropolitan area.
About Nestpick: Nestpick is an aggregator platform for midterm rental of furnished apartments. Users can browse more than 80,000 listings in 30 European cities and book their apartment on the website of a trusted partner. Founded in 2014 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Nestpick is now based in Berlin, Germany.
