If somebody asked you where Dublin ranked among the 1,000 largest cities in world, would you rank it thirteenth?
Well, the team behind the Oxford Economics Global Cities Index did just that. A “sustainable city” they called it, with top ratings for everything except a little, inconsequential thing called “quality of life”.
The Fair City ranked as just the 100th best city in the world when it comes to quality of life as Dubliners spend “relatively more on housing than nearly anywhere else”. Digging deeper, that score suddenly seems even more generous.
“Dublin’s challenges include its acute housing shortage, lack of economic diversity and the instability that comes with its sectoral composition,” the report reads, placing the Irish capital above the very cities our young people are queuing to emigrate to – Amsterdam ranked 27th, Berlin 29th, Brisbane 23rd and Perth 31st.
Dublin’s placement, knocking on the door of the top 10, was driven by strong scores for environmental friendliness (14th) and human capital (17th), based on a score of “high-quality universities” such as Trinity College Dublin.
With Dublin’s economics score being artificially inflated by having the fifth-highest GDP per person in the 1,000 cities, the city’s overall position would doubtless be lower were it not for the convenient location of the European headquarters of many United States firms. Still, we have the third-fastest employment growth forecast in western Europe, which puts weight behind the prior “flawed measure”.
Dublin’s ranking was boosted by the country’s “stable political democracy”, despite a business environment thought to be “average” in comparison to the rest of western Europe – though perhaps not average when it comes to taxation.
“On the other hand”, after pouring praise upon the city, the report goes on to explain that there are actually some negatives to living in Dublin and, yes, you’ve guessed it, the major is being one of the most expensive cities in Europe for housing.
In Ireland’s “sustainable city”, one is left wondering if its housing situation is capable of being anything other than a spur for emigration.
