This factsheet compares Swindon to the five most similar European cities in size and industrial structure. These are: Europ’ Essonne (Massy) (France) A Coruña (Spain) Mülheim a.d.Ruhr (Germany) Osnabrück (Germany) Alcalá de Henares (Spain)
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 Swindon to its European counterparts on variables such as skills, employment and productivity.
City group characteristics
Swindon is a small city. It has a large private services and smaller public 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
Swindon performs well as part of its group and within European cities as a whole. It does particularly well on employment rate and is in the top 100 of 330 for both GVA per worker and patents. It however has fewer higher skilled people compared to its group.