New York is the best city for start-ups -- but Denver has better internet speeds
Video: Smart city index reveals who's falling behind (London and NYC are laggy)
Smart cities that want hang on to their millennials for the long-term economic benefits they bring should consider improving elements like employability, bandwidth, and their start-up ecosystems.
These cities could become a magnet for millennials -- who would benefit their local economies.
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Furnished apartment search engine, Nestpick, has released a study revealing the top 110 cities for millennials to live in today. The study is based on factors such as start-up ecosystem, housing affordability, immigration tolerance, and quality of nightlife.
Its second-annual study pinpoints which cities are successfully attracting this generation -- its potential core future workforce. In 2017, it studied thousands of cities, focusing on capitals and economic hubs, to determine the top 100 millennial dream destinations.
Following feedback about the importance of education to this generation, the company added 10 more locations to better cover major university cities. Looking deeper into what millennials care about, it adjusted the weight of each category to reflect this factor.
For example, essentials (housing, internet, university, etc) accounts for a higher percentage than recreation (nightlife, beer price, etc). The study has shown young professionals display clear migration patterns that smart cities could take advantage of today.
Whilst housing affordability is a major concern for most, it is even more so for young professionals at the start of their careers. Worldwide, Berlin is rated as the best city for millennials, with its thriving start-up scene, open attitude toward the LGBT community, and a world-renowned nightlife scene.
Canada comes out as the top country for millennials, with three of its cities in the top 10: Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. London is also included in the final list, ranking at No. 3.
New York City leads the world for its start-up ecosystem, followed by San Francisco and London. The start-up score is based on the number of start-ups in the city, according to the CrunchBase start-up database.
In order to emphasize more successful start-up environments, start-ups that have raised at least $100,000 in funding since 2016 contributed more to the final score than start-ups with less funding.
Denver is the place to go if you want superb internet speed. The city comes third behind Seoul and Bergen, Norway.
The internet speed score was calculated from the average broadband download speeds, as published on a country-wide basis by the Akamai State of the Internet Report. Crowd-sourcing data from Nomadlist was used to fine-tune estimates on a city-by-city basis.
Read also: Employees under 35 prefer office life to remote working
Ömer Kücükdere, managing director of Nestpick, said: "Millennials grew up in a shrinking world, where the internet opened doors their parents never could have dreamed of, and budget airlines made those avenues real possibilities.
He added, "We must learn to adapt to the needs of younger people in order to have a thriving economy, and we believe that this ranking offers valuable insights to those cities looking for regeneration from a younger demographic."
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