Dublin ranking slips seven places

Dublin has dropped seven places in a measure of the world’s most reputable cities but still outranks the likes of Berlin, Washington DC and Hong Kong.

The annual City RepTrak survey conducted by international management consultancy, the Reputation Institute ranks 100 world cities in terms of 16 social metrics including infrastructure, business environment, education, safety, living conditions, emotional appeal and public perception.

Last year’s survey saw Dublin jump from 30 to 20 in the list. The authors note however, that the top 30 cities are separated by very few points and Dublin is, effectively, only around two points off the top 10.

The survey was also conducted during the first two months of 2014, and doesn’t take into account any post-bailout exit optimism. The survey is conducted among inhabitants of the G8 countries, only.

Dublin’s score of 70.65 points compared to Vienna, in top spot, with 76.4 points, and was only marginally behind Montreal in tenth place with 73.1 points. Munich, Sydney, London, Barcelona, Vancouver, Oslo, Florence and Venice were also in the top 10. Not only did no US city make the top 20, but the country’s highest representative, New York, dropped three places to 24.

While Dublin was firmly in the category of ‘cities with a strong reputation’ — those with a score of 70 to 80 points — there was a marked difference in the areas in which it polled strongly.

“While Dublin achieved strong scores in certain attributes such as ‘is a beautiful city’ and ‘offers a wide range of appealing experiences’, it performed only moderately in the more economic and business-orientated attributes, such as ‘is run by well-respected leaders’; ‘offers a favourable environment for doing business in’; ‘is financially stable and has great potential for future growth’; and ‘is the headquarters location of many leading companies,” said Niamh Boyle, managing director of the institute’s Irish associate The Reputations Agency.

“We know cities are major drivers of economic activity and the success of Dublin, as a capital city, is crucial for Ireland’s overall economy,” she added.

“The good reputation of a city strongly correlates with an increase in the support shown towards a city, such as visiting the city, living or working in the city or deciding to invest in the city.

“We need to understand the perceptions of Dublin, as reported upon in this study, to identify our competitive strengths,” Ms Boyle said.