Barcelona is the 4th most innovative city in Europe in 2019

Barcelona is among the leading cities in Europe and the world in terms of innovation, competitiveness, and in attracting talent and foreign investment. These are some of the main conclusions of the 17^th annual report from the Barcelona Observatory, a joint initiative by Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and Barcelona City Council. The document compares Barcelona with the main European cities and around the world in areas like economic activity pole, labor market and training, knowledge society or quality of life, among others.

The report shows the good health of the city in innovation (4^th in Europe and 21^st in the world), competitiveness (22^nd), digital talent attraction (5^th) and foreign investment projects (7^th), among 33 world reference indicators.

A leading city in innovation, competitiveness and technology

Barcelona is ranked for the first time as the 4^th most innovative city in Europe in 2019, only behind London, Paris and Berlin, and the 21^st in the world among the 500 cities analyzed by Innovation Cities Index by 2thinknow. The city experiences very good progress in this area: it raises four positions in the European classification and nine in the world-wide in relation to 2018.

Regarding competitiveness, the Catalan capital is the 22^nd city with the most global competitiveness for the fourth consecutive year, according to the Global Power City Index 2019 of the Mori Memorial Foundation.

Considering the attraction of foreign investment projects, the KPMG's Global Cities Investment Monitor 2019 report places Barcelona in the 7^th position among the main urban areas of the world in attracting greenfield investment projects in 2018. The report highlights Barcelona’s capacity to attract R&D projects, as it is ranked as the 4^th global area -with 29 projects- and only behind Paris, Singapore and Bangalore.

Europe's 3rd favorite city to set up a startup, behind London and Berlin

According to the prestigious StartUp Heatmap Europe 2019, Barcelona is ranked as the 3^rd most preferred city in Europe to set up startup for the third consecutive year, ahead of Paris, Amsterdam or Munich. On the other hand, according to the European Commission, Barcelona is the 7^th city in Europe with more scaleups, startup technological companies founded in the new millennium that have raised more than one million dollars in funding per year 2018, ahead of Amsterdam, Copenhagen or Madrid.

Barcelona is the 5^th most attractive city in the world for digital talent that wants to work abroad according to the Decoding Global Talent 2019 from The Boston Consulting Group, just behind London, New York, Berlin and Amsterdam.

A reference in education excellence and work-personal life balance

In terms of education, Barcelona is the only European city with two academic institutions (IESE and ESADE) among the top 10 business schools in the world, according to the Financial Times. The Observatory has also concluded that Barcelona is the 4^th city in the world that organizes the greatest number of congresses and the 1^st in number of representatives that attend these fairs.

The report includes, for the first time, a ranking that classifies the best cities to combine work and personal life, where Barcelona places the 8^th position in the world, ahead of cities like Paris or Vancouver and only behind Helsinki, Munich, Oslo, Hamburg, Stockholm, Berlin and Zurich.

Source: Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and Catalan News