Beyond the Big City: Shifting Preferences Among the Urban Young?
By TH!NK by IBI
Date
August 15, 2016
Will Millennials soon be fleeing the world’s big cities? A new study by Youthful Cities suggests so. The study, which was based on 15,000 interviews with millennials in 34 cities around the world, found that 58% of the respondents planned to leave their current city within the next decade. The most important push factors were high costs of living, safety issues, and problems with employment. In North America, 79% of those surveyed stated that they were happy and 72% said they were healthy. However, 17% were unemployed, while 26% were only employed part-time. Employment figures help explain why only 26% of North American millennials expect to be be better off financially than their parents, below the global average of 31%. Survey participants were found to be more likely to stay in cities that were considered more “youthful”, a definition that was based on 20 categories of attributes. Based on those categories, the researchers created the Urban Millennial Awards:
- Most Youthful Mayor: London
- Municipal Government Hears Youth Award: Montreal
- Skateboard City Award: Addis Ababa
- Most entrepreneurial Millennials award: Mumbai
- Financial success award: Moscow
- Cyclist Award: Berlin
- Public Riders Award: Warsaw
- Start-Up Spirit Award: Kinshasa
Of particular note, safety, education and health were the most important locational determinants for millennials around the world, while fashion, food and nightlife were the least important factor. Signs of a maturing generation or the result of a global study of millennials rather than the typical focus on those in developed countries?
