Toronto has inched its way up a ranking of the world’s most competitive cities, but Montreal and Vancouver have seen their ranks decline.
The ranking from Citigroup and the Economist Intelligence Unit lists Toronto as the world’s 10th-most competitive city, ahead of Taipei and Zurich and just behind Stockholm and Chicago.
Toronto had placed 12th in the rankings last year.
But while Canada’s largest city managed to eke out an improvement, Vancouver saw its ranking fall to 28th place, from 18th last year. And Montreal fell eight points, to 36th place, according to the survey. Those were the only Canadian cities listed in the survey of 120 metropolitan areas.
The study did not directly address why two of Canada’s cities declined in the rankings. Other cities that came ahead of Toronto are Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney. Check out the top 20 here (story continues below slideshow):
World's Most Competitive Cities
To determine a city’s competitiveness, the study looked at 32 indicators divided into eight broad categories: economic strength, physical capital, financial maturity, institutional character, human capital, global appeal, social and cultural character, and environmental and natural hazards.
It looks at both current data and projections for the year 2025, to determine a city's competitiveness going forward.
This year’s study focused on the rapid urbanization taking place in much of the developing world, a pattern that is echoing the urbanization seen in the west in the past century.
“Standard population projections show that virtually all global growth over the next 30 years will be in urban areas,” the study says. “The number of people living in the world’s cities is growing by nearly 60 million every year.”