World’s 30 Best Cities to Work and Live: PWC

Which world city makes it the easiest to do business? Which is the most “livable?” PWC U.S. attempted to answer these questions and a variety of others to rank 30 major cities’ business cultures and quality of life.

A city’s size did not determine its success, according to PWC. Every indicator in the study had both small and large cities among top performers, even those indicating economic clout and openness to the world.

The study, Cities of Opportunity 6, evaluated the 30 cities in 10 categories:

• Gateway status, or openness to the outside world
• Cost
• Demographics and livability
• Ease of doing business
• Economic clout
• Health, safety and security
• Intellectual capital and innovation
• Sustainability and the natural environment
• Demographics and livability
• Transportation and infrastructure

(Related: Top 15 Best Foreign Countries for Retirement: 2014)

PWC based its study on publicly available data collected during the third and fourth quarters of 2013, using global multilateral development organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund; national statistics organizations, such as National Statistics in the U.K. and the Census Bureau in the U.S.; and commercial data providers.

Following are the 10 indicators of successful cities, with the top 10 performers in each category.

1) City Gateway

1. London

2. Beijing

3. Singapore

4. (tie) Tokyo

4. (tie) Hong Kong

6. Madrid

7. Paris

8. Dubai

9. (tie) New York

9. (tie) Shanghai

2) Cost (Lower to higher)

1. Los Angeles

2. Chicago

3. Johannesburg

4. Toronto

5. Dubai

6. San Francisco

7. Berlin

8. Kuala Lumpur

9. New York

10. Seoul

3) Demographics and Livability

1. Sydney

2. London

3. San Francisco

4. Berlin

5. (tie) Singapore

5. (tie) Hong Kong

7. Paris

8. Stockholm

9. Toronto

10. New York

10. Chicago

4) Ease of Doing Business

1. Singapore

2. Hong Kong

3. New York

4. Toronto

5. London

6. Los Angeles

7. (tie) San Francisco

7. (tie) Chicago

9. Seoul

10. Stockholm

5) Economic Clout

1. London

2. Beijing

3. New York

4. Paris

5. Shanghai

6. Singapore

7. San Francisco

8. Hong Kong

9. Toronto