Shanghai tops list of most-attractive cities for young people
Shanghai tops a new ranking which evaluates cities' attractiveness to young residents in terms of career development, commercial and residential infrastructure, and daily convenience.
To compile the list, CBN Data developed a total of 70 sub-indices in three categories, namely employment market, living conditions and cultural and entertainment resources to evaluate cities on Chinese mainland. This data was also combined with online survey results from 1,500 participants.
Instead of simply evaluating local economic strength, the ranking also draws data from Internet platforms such as Alibaba's logistics affiliate Cainiao, movie ticketing services, on-demand food delivery service Ele.me, online travel platform Ctrip, online recruitment firms and many others. There are also sub-indices covering business environment and how commercial facilities and Internet or lifestyle services are embraced by consumers in different parts of the country.
General Manager of CBN Chen Sijie said that combining data from new business sources offers a more holistic picture of how cities develop on different levels.
Most of the desirable cities in terms of living and working conditions are either in the Yangtze River Delta region or the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, making these two areas the most sought-after places for fresh graduates.
The top 10 cities in descending order are Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan, Nanjing, Chongqing and Suzhou.
A total of 42 cities among the top 100 are located in eastern China.
Although Shanghai ranks the top, Beijing scored slightly higher on a sub-index for career development, while Shanghai excels on convenience for local residents and the excitement of its urban life.
The consumer shopping experience was also ranked surprisingly high in several small cities such as Foshan, Jiaxing and Ningbo, all of which have more shopping-center area per capita than top-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai.
