Barcelona, the eighth most attractive city in the world to live, work, research, and visit

Barcelona has continued in 2020 and in the forecasts for 2021 in the top positions of international economic rankings of reference. According to the report The World's Best Cities 2021 prepared by Resonance Consultancy, the Catalan capital is the eighth best city in the world, ranking behind London, New York, Paris, Moscow, Tokyo, Dubai, and Singapore. Los Angeles and Madrid occupy the ninth and tenth positions, respectively.

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Resonance Consultancy highlights Barcelona's climate and quality of life, its architecture, its beaches, and its neighborhoods, which make it "an ideal European city." According to the report, the city has led programs to address the effects of mass tourism, citing as an example the measures adopted to curb the rental of tourist housing on Airbnb. It also notes the strong impact of the pandemic and mentions that it is possible that 40% of the city's bars and restaurants may not be able to reopen.

Regarding the partial results of the ranking, Barcelona's best results are 7th place in internet promotion, followed by 9th in urban quality, 11th in cultural programming, and 12th in infrastructure and attractiveness.

5th largest 'startup hub' in Europe

According to the study EU-Starts-Up 2020, Barcelona is one of Europe's reference bases for startups and the fifth best city in the world to establish a startup, behind London, Berlin, Paris, and Amsterdam. The ranking highlights the city's current situation and gives as an example ten Barcelona-based emerging companies that have continued to grow in 2020 despite the crisis: MediQuo, Factorial, PayFlow, Holded, Landbot.io, Amenitiz, LearnLife, Tradler, Remy Robotics, and Hubtype.

7th city in the world with the best brand

Barcelona is part of the Top 10 of the Saffron City Brand Barometer 2020, which compiles the strongest tourism brands, with the best assets and reputation. They take into account values such as the diversity of attractions, low crime rates, or high levels of sunshine hours, elements that contribute to a positive perception among international tourists. The ranking is led by Paris, London, Tokyo, New York, Singapore, and Dubai. Behind Barcelona are Madrid, Vienna, and Moscow.

2nd in the world in 'tech' sector attraction strategy and 8th tech city of the future

The annual report by fDi Intelligence magazine, part of the Financial Times group, places Barcelona as the second-best city in tech sector attraction strategy within the ranking led by London, out of 50 evaluated European tech ecosystems. As highlighted elements, the classification notes that despite the situation, Barcelona has been strengthened as host of major global tech events, such as the Mobile World Congress and the Smart City Expo, and they consider the city and Catalonia as "a leading destination on the map of global tech ecosystems." The study also highlights the city's infrastructures, "including science parks, nine universities, and an innovation district, 22@, of 200 hectares, which help reinforce Barcelona's attractiveness for international tech companies."

In parallel, the new Top 10 Tech Cities of the Future 2020/21 ranking by FDI magazine places Barcelona in 8th position in the global classification among European tech cities of the future and in 5th place in terms of best prospects for receiving investments in innovation, technology, and startups, only behind London, Dublin, Paris, and Amsterdam. According to this source, Barcelona and Catalonia have the 2nd best strategy in Europe for attracting the tech sector.