How is the Manchester economy performing, and what are the key policy issues facing the city?
This factsheet compares Manchester with the five most similar European cities in size and industrial structure. These are: Hamburg (Germany), Budapest (Hungary), Lyon (France), Athens (Greece), Barcelona (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 Manchester to its European counterparts on variables such as skills, employment and productivity.
Manchester is a large city with a fairly large business services and private services sector.
Manchester ranks in the middle of the group on indicators such as GVA and jobs, but has a smaller business base and a relatively low skilled population.