Prague considered the world’s 13th best city

Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic, ranked 13th in a new index of the world’s 113 cities in terms of economic and social inclusivity. The first-ever Prosperity & Inclusion City Seal and Awards (PICSA) Index, released in the Basque Country capital of Bilbao in northern Spain, is designed to showcase not only the quantity of economic growth of a city but also its quality and distribution across populations.

The index has considered various aspects of life in the city divided into three pillars. Pillar 1 consisted of questions around income, including its distribution, and questions related to access to opportunities such as educational opportunities (which themselves affect current and future income). The 2^nd Pillar had mainly to do with non-income well-being of different social groups (related to diversity) and with people’s engagement in society. Pillar 3 considered infrastructure and services of cities.

The cities were assessed on comparable data from the main focus areas by a jury of experts and business leaders. These assessments then produced an overall score for each city’s inclusive prosperity, allowing them to be ranked based on a wide range of measures. The overall index did not only look at the GDP per capita, but also measured factors such as affordability of housing, access to jobs, education and healthcare, etc. This is the first time that the world’s major cities have been ranked not just by the size and health of their economy, but for their efforts to build inclusive and prosperous environments for all its citizens.

“As the first-ever non-commercial ranking index, PICSA provides a new measure of economic productivity that goes beyond GDP to provide a holistic account of how well people are doing in the economy and which have the populations that are most empowered to contribute to its economy and share in its benefits,” explained Asier Alea Castanos, Director of Strategic Programmes at the Regional Council of Biscay, in reference to the index launch.

Zurich topped the index, followed by Vienna. Copenhagen, Luxembourg, and Helsinki completed the top five. The top 20 was dominated by European cities (15), joined by four North American cities (Ottawa in 8th place; Washington DC ranked 11th; Seattle in 14th and Boston in 16th) and Taipei, which is the only Asian city to make it into the top 20 at 6th place.