Top Five Cities for Economic Growth in Western Europe 2017-2022

Why Western Europe?

Rapid economic growth of the sort apparent in Asian economies, particularly China,over the last two decades is no longer a characteristic of Western Europe. Western Europe is still renowned for its affluence,political stability and ease of doing business.

Segmenting cities for analysis

Consumer market size is an important concept, since it gauges the potential economic worth of a region, city of country. For this reason, to ensure the cities being presented in the report are ofample size, only ones with a GDP larger than that of the Western European median will be analysed.

Cork: the main counterbalance to Dublin’s dominance

The Republic of Ireland’s second largest city – is asserting itself as the country’s leader in terms of economic growth. The national government’s Ireland2040 plan, published in February2018, envisages Cork as being the major counterbalance to Dublin in guiding economic development in the country.

Dublin: home to the data centre boom

Since 2008, which saw Ireland experience a major economic contraction, the country has bounced back. Dublin, for instance, has been Western Europe’s high flying major city, with real GDP per capita racing away by 65% over 2012-2017 in real terms.

Stockholm: rapid population growth in Sweden’s capital

Stockholm has witnessed a major surge in population over the past couple of years, largely due to rising migration flows. In 2017, the city welcomed 25,100 net migrants – the highest figure recorded according to Passport Cities data.

Gothenburg: home to Scandinavia’s largest seaport

Gothenburg is Sweden’s second largest city after Stockholm, with a population of one million in2017.

Malmo: income inequality a key issue in Sweden’s third largest city

Part of the Oresund region in southern Sweden, is the country’s third largest by population. In 2017, Malmo metropolitan was home to706,900 people – an increase of41,600 people since 2012.