Reading: Centre for Cities ranks Reading 23rd in Europe for high-skilled population

Competing with the continent; how UK cities compare with their European counterparts, a new report by think-tank Centre for Cities, compares 330 UK and European cities across 17 countries in terms of employment, skills, innovation and productivity. Reading is ranked 23^rd for high-skilled population.

Each city is also compared to the five most similar European cities in terms of size and industrial structure. The report categorises Reading as a medium-sized city with a large business services sector, small manufacturing sector and comparatively small public services sector. Reading’s five comparative cities are Antwerp (Belgian port and diamond city), Malmo (Sweden’s third largest city), Geneva (Switzerland’s second most populous city, financial centre and home to many international organisations such as the United Nations), Basel (home to the Swiss chemical industry and banking) and Aix-en-Provence (France).

In its comparator group of six cities, Reading emerges as the strongest with regard to high-skilled population. It is also top for employment rates (19^th in Europe). Reading fares less well against its five counterparts in other comparisons, such as productivity per worker, total jobs and patent applications, but still ranks highly across the whole of Europe, despite being dwarfed in size and population by many of Europe’s cities. Of the benchmark group, Reading has the fourth smallest population.

Hugo Bessis, lead report research at Centre for Cities, said: “Cities have always competed for investment, trade and talent. In recent decades, increasing globalisation and technological development has made this competition ever greater. So in order to continue to create jobs and wages for people living in and around them, cities need to be attractive beyond national borders. For the UK, the ability of its cities to attract investment will determine the success of the national economy as a whole.”

Nigel Horton-Baker, executive director of Reading UK CIC, said: “Reading’s continued economic success will, in large part, be based on the performance of its high-profile knowledge-based companies. Attracting and retaining staff with the right skills is the number one concern for many of these businesses. Reading’s ranking in the top 25 of Europe’s 330 cities for high-skilled workers shows how strong the talent pool is here and why Reading is so attractive to both people and companies working in these sectors.”

In the overall comparison of the 330 cities, Reading’s performance is:

High skilled population – 23/330

Concentration of business services – 4/330

GVA per worker (productivity) – 42/330, one of only six UK cities with a higher than average European productivity

Patent applications – 74/330

Employment rate – 19/330

Total jobs – 99/330

The report is available at http://www.centreforcities.org/