Where will the Millennials live?
According to Nielsen:
62 percent (of Millennials) indicate they prefer to live in the type of mixed-use communities found in urban centers, where they can be close to shops, restaurants, and offices. They are currently living in these urban areas at a higher rate than any other generation, and 40 percent say they would like to live in an urban area in the future.
Millennials, or Generation Y, are names some marketers and demographers apply to the young-adult age group today. Although there isn’t an exact date for when Generation Y begins and ends, the typically accepted birth-dates range from early 1980s to the early 2000s.
Not all Millennials are the same, but the group is often characterized by increased familiarity and use with communication, media, and digital technology.
Which cities are most suitable for this young age group? YouthfulCities is an initiative seeking to answer this question by ranking the world’s top 100 cities from a youthful perspective. The top three ranking cities of 2014 are New York, Berlin, and Toronto, which picked “Most Youthful City of the Year.”
Sixteen categories thought to be valued highly by the target audience were assessed during the research process to evaluate the “youthfulness” of each city: civic participation, diversity, internal transportation, digital access, environmental sustainability, safety and mental health, education access, youth employment, financial access, entrepreneurship, economic status, food and nightlife, music and film, fashion and art, public space, sport and gaming, and regional and global connectivity.
Toronto won first place by ranking in the top five for nine of the 16 categories. The city’s lowest rankings were for safety and mental health, and civic participation. Public transportation was also a concern, but a recent vote to save Bixi, the city’s bike-sharing program, helped improve its ranking in that category.
Here is the list of the top 10 youthful cities for 2014:
- Toronto
- Berlin
- New York
- Dallas
- Paris
- Chicago
- London
- Los Angeles
- Tokyo
- Seoul
