New York City named the top city for youth

UNDER 30? This is the city for you. An annual survey has been conducted to find the best cities in the world for young people. So who came out on top?

UNDER 30 years old? You’ll want to keep reading. A survey has just been released naming the world’s top 55 cities for youth.

So where do all the young people want to live? That would be New York City which came in at number one. London and Berlin came in second and third respectively.

As for Australia, only Sydney made the list ranked at number 16.

The Youthful Cities index rated cities across the globe using 101 different indicators.

Over 10,000 people participated in the survey which looked at aspects of city life including music, film, fashion and night-life. Each city was also judged on wider factors such as environment, safety, affordability, diversity and employment.

With 50 per cent of the world’s population now under 30 years of age and living in cities, the study is important for helping shape the future of our youth.

Berlin was ranked number three thanks to its high levels of digital access.

Sonja Miokovic, co-founder of Youthful Cities said: “Half of the world’s population is under 30 years old and half now live in cities. Youth and cities — especially the largest ones — will together shape the future of the planet.

“This index creates a wealth of comparable knowledge based on what is important to youth. This understanding is critical for city leaders and urban designers committed to making smarter choices that attract and enable young people to fulfil their ambitions.”

The index found Tehran to be the most affordable of the cities it examined, followed by Detroit, while San Francisco and Mexico City had the best employment prospects.

San Francisco was also ranked highest for environment and entrepreneurship, but Toronto was best for diversity, Madrid for digital access, Warsaw for education and Tokyo for food and night-life. Moscow won on three counts: public space, sports and financial services.

The city with the most youthful population, defined as the percentage of the total population who are between the ages of 15 and 29, is Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam

Paris the city of lights came in at number five.

Nine North American cities and five from Europe made the index’s top 20, while Asia contributed three cities, topped by Tokyo in 12th place.

Mexico City in ninth place was the highest ranking of Latin America’s entries, while Tel Aviv opened for the Middle East in 14th place and Africa joined the index in the 35th slot with Johannesburg.

Last year’s winner Toronto slipped below San Francisco and Paris to rank sixth.

Top 10

1. New York

2. London

3. Berlin

4. San Francisco

5. Paris

6. Toronto

7. Chicago

8. Los Angeles

9. Mexico City

10. Amsterdam

Toronto was knocked from its number one perch to number six.