Some people like eking out their existence in a shoebox for the privilege of calling New York City or London home.
Others, meanwhile, prefer to live their glory days in cities with enough cash in hand for extra guac and a Tinder Plus membership.
Which is to say: affordability has considerable influence over where young people live.
YouthfulCities, a Toronto startup, has just released their annual ranking of 55 global cities where people 15 to 29 years old will find the greatest bang for their bitcoin.
According to their criteria, Sydney is the most affordable city in the world for young people. Montreal was named the second-most affordable city, while Detroit rounded out the top three. Toronto and Vancouver ranked 13th and 15th, respectively.
The survey considers factors like the price of food, housing, and public transit, as well as tax rates and base pay for entry-level jobs, to determine its ranking. It even considers the cost of minor expenses like movie tickets. This chart, for example. has calculated how many hours of work are required to afford a tube of toothpaste:
The most significant metric, however, is minimum wage. Sydney’s minimum wage is the highest of all cities considered at $16.28/hour. Not coincidentally, last year’s most affordable city was Paris on account of having the highest minimum wage of all cities included in the analysis.
That, of course, might be the only time you’ll see the words ‘Paris’ and ‘affordable’ in the same sentence. It’s no surprise to see a close correlation between a city’s overall ranking and minimum wage:
Rent, another significant factor for the under-30 crowd, is cheapest in Berlin, which ranked fifth overall. The low price of gym memberships is essentially the only other metric where Sydney stood out.
So, what’s the point of all this?
Recognizing that affordability is key strategy for smart cities to attract and retain youth as a positive economic force, YouthfulCities wants to become a catalyst for boosting prosperity in over 100 cities across the globe within the next decade.
Hopefully we’re not too old to enjoy it by then.
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