This factsheet compares Edinburgh to the five most similar European cities in size and industrial structure. These are: Geneva (Switzerland), Utrecht (Netherlands), Antwerp (Belgium), Wiesbaden (Germany) and Aix-en-Provence (France)
Comparing cities in this way helps us to understand more about how well UK cities are competing on an international scale because it groups cities with similar industrial structures, rather than on their resulting economic performance. The factsheet also compares the relative strengths and weaknesses of Edinburgh to its European counterparts on variables such as skills, employment and productivity.
City group characteristics
Edinburgh is a medium-sized city with a particularly large business services sector.
Population
Industrial structure
Key
- Manufacturing, mining and utilities 2011
- Business services 2011
- Public services 2011
- Other private services 2011
- Other sectors 2011
Overall economic performance
Edinburgh has a significantly highly skilled population, ranking 10th out of all European cities looked at. It ranks highly for jobs, but it’s productivity (GVA per worker) is comparatively low. All other cities in this group rank within the top 55 of out of 330 cities on this indicator.