Every year, fDi Intelligence, the investment arm of the Financial Times, publishes the prestigious investment rankings European Cities and Regions of the Future 2024, which compare the most promising investment destinations in Europe. This year’s ranking also honours the city and region of Kaunas in the top ten in four categories among the small cities and regions, Kaunas IN informs.
The Future European Cities and Regions Ranking 2024 looks at Europe’s cities and regions, assessing their economic, financial, and quality-of-life strengths, to find and discover the most promising areas for investment attraction, economic development, and business growth.
In total, around 330 European cities were assessed, divided by population size into five groups: large, large, medium, small, and micro. In addition, 141 European regions were assessed, and divided into three groups – large, medium, and small.
In addition to the overall ranking, the jury of investment promotion and economic development experts assessed cities and regions in five sub-categories: economic potential, business friendliness, connectivity, human capital and quality of life, and cost-effectiveness.
Kaunas also made it into the top ten in the FDI Strategy category, ranking 8th, between Gdynia in Poland and Klaipėda in Lithuania.
Kaunas region, which got into the Small European Regions category, was ranked 9th in the cost-effectiveness category, ahead of Vilnius region, which came in 10th.
“It is encouraging to see that the city’s strategic choice to increase its investment competitiveness by promoting the popularity of study programmes connected to the priority sectors is gaining international recognition. Investors who choose Kaunas appreciate the highly qualified and challenge-averse workforce that is available here, so these results perfectly reflect both the expectations of investors and the activities of recent years, which have been directed both towards increasing the number of professionals and making the business environment friendlier to investors,” said Tadas Stankevičius, the head of Kaunas IN, which monitors and improves Kaunas’ investment climate.
As the organisers themselves note in their review of the 2024 results, cities from Central and Eastern Europe dominate this year’s sub-categories, with Frankfurt in Germany, Wroclaw in Poland, and Luxembourg City all scoring highly in the large, medium-sized, and small city categories.
London, Amsterdam, and Dublin share the top three spots in the overall ranking of major European cities. In the overall ranking of major regions, the French region of Paris (Île-de-France) has traditionally been unrivalled, followed by the West Midlands in the United Kingdom and North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany.
Download the PDF to explore this year’s winners.
