In a report produced by the fDi Intelligence, the Netherlands performed well in a series of rankings that measured future prospects of 253 cities and 110 regions across Europe.
Amsterdam was ranked the 15th top European city overall for the future, and the 3rd best large European city. It scored highly for infrastructure, attitudes towards business and the quality of its human resources.
Utrecht, which was recently claimed to be one of the world's most underestimated cities by Lonely Planet, was ranked as the 7th top small European city overall, while the Utrecht region is listed as the 12th best in Europe. The fDi report praises Utrecht for its quality of life, and quality of its human resources.
Rotterdam also made the top 10, coming in as the 8th best large European city overall, and winner of the large city infrastructure rankings, while Eindhoven's future was graded 9th place in a list of European micro-cities.
Survey data
The Cities and Regions of the Future information was set under seven categories: economic potential, human resources, cost effectiveness, quality of life, infrastructure, business friendliness and FDI promotion strategy.
About fDi Intelligence
fDi Intelligence, a specialist service from The Financial Times Ltd. provides industry leading insight into globalisation, and enables investment promotion agencies, multinational companies, services providers and academic institutions to make informed decisions regarding foreign direct investment and associated activities.
For more information please download the European Cities of the Future 2012 report.
Top 20 European Cities (Overall)
› London, UK
› Paris, France
› Vienna, Austria
› Moscow, Russia
› Reading, UK
› Munich, Germany
› Cambridge, UK
› Dublin, Ireland
› Berlin, Germany
› Stockholm, Sweden
› Edinburgh, UK
› Copenhagen, Denmark
› Hamburg, Germany
› Glasgow, UK
› Amsterdam, the Netherlands
› Bristol, UK
› Oslo, Norway
› Zurich, Switzerland
› Brussels, Belgium
› Prague, Czech Rep
Note that the good news follows research by Bloomberg that rated the Netherlands as the second best market globally in which to set up and run a business.