It used to be that cities with jobs attracted and kept their workforce. That might have worked for your dad, but it’s not going to work for your kids. Today, young up-and-comers pick their cities – those with the amenities and “vibe” they value – and then look for jobs. (Sometimes to their parents’ chagrin.)
Next Generation Consulting (NGC) has surveyed the places that 20-40 year olds choose to call home since 1998 – and talked with 39,000 of them about why they live and work where they do. Turns out that the Next Cities™ (the places they love) have seven things in common. They all have great scores in these areas: Vitality, Earning, Learning, Social Capital, Cost of Living, After Hours, and Around Town (analyzing 45 measures in all). In Hampton Roads, Hampton, Virginia Beach and Norfolk made the short list.
“Simply being the cheapest place to live, or the city with the most jobs is not a long-term workforce strategy,” says NGCs founder, Rebecca Ryan. Although jobs are important, Ryan says, “The next generation is very savvy about choosing where they’ll live. They look carefully at quality of life factors like how much time they’re going to spend in traffic commuting, if they can live near a park or hike-and-bike trail, and whether a city’s downtown stays awake after five.” The Next Cities list ranks cities that are – or have the capacity to be – great places to live and work for the next generation, because they have the best overall score in the seven indexes the next gen values.
Noted economist Richard Florida underscores the large economic dividend paid to cities and regions that are talent magnets, noting in the April 2009 issue of The Atlantic that “The world’s 40 largest mega-regions, which are home to some 18% of the world’s population, produce two-thirds of global economic output and nearly nine in ten new patented innovations.”
NEXT CITIES RANKED BY POPULATION
Mighty Micros – Next Cities with Population of 100,000-200,000
1. Fort Collins, Colorado
2. Charleston, South Carolina
3. Eugene, Oregon
4. Cedar Rapids, Iowa
5. Springfield, Illinois
6. Cary, North Carolina
7. Ann Arbor, Michigan
8. Sioux Falls, South Dakota
9. Pueblo, Colorado
10. Gainesville, Florida
11. Stamford, Connecticut
12. Des Moines, Iowa
13. Spokane, Washington
14. Syracuse, New York
15. Huntsville, Alabama
16. Peoria, Illinois
17. Springfield, Missouri
18. Salt Lake City, Utah
19. Richmond, Virginia
20. Hampton, Virginia
Midsized Magnets – Next Cities with Population of 200,000-500,000
1. Madison, Wisconsin
2. Minneapolis, Minnesota
3. Colorado Springs, Colorado
4. Atlanta, Georgia
5. St. Paul, Minnesota
6. Omaha, Nebraska
7. Cincinnati, Ohio
8. Boise, Idaho
9. Durham, North Carolina
10. New Orleans, Louisiana
11. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
12. Raleigh, North Carolina
13. Lexington, Kentucky
14. Virginia Beach, Virginia
15. Lincoln, Nebraska
16. Lubbock, Texas
17. Reno, Nevada
18. Norfolk, Virginia
19. St. Louis, Missouri
20. Orlando, Florida
Super Cities – Next Cities with Population over 500,000
1. San Francisco, California
2. Seattle, Washington
3. Boston, Massachusetts
4. Washington, District of Columbia
5. Denver, Colorado
6. Austin, Texas
7. Baltimore, Maryland
8. Portland, Oregon
9. New York City, New York
10. Columbus, Ohio
11. Milwaukee, Wisconsin
12. Charlotte, North Carolina
13. Chicago, Illinois
14. Nashville, Tennessee
15. Jacksonville, Florida
16. Tucson, Arizona
17. San Antonio, Texas
18. Los Angeles, California
19. San Diego, California
20. Houston, Texas
For more information about the Next Cities rankings, including a description of each of the Seven Indexes and a PDF of the full report, Next Cities 2009-2010, visit http://nextgenerationconsulting.com/consulting/next-cities/.