Monitoring urban change and identifying future potentials: the case of the European Urban Audit and the State of European Cities Report

Abstract

A wide variety of factors drive the agenda in cities, and in order to support cities the European Commission – in cooperation with Eurostat, the National Statistical Offices and the cities – has collected urban statistics on a regular basis since 2003. This data set is called the European Urban Audit, an innovative tool for monitoring the quality of life in European cities and their functional urban regions. The State of European Cities Report presents the first thorough analysis based on the Urban Audit data sets. The report focuses on domains of relevant comparative data. This current report addresses four key questions: What are the current demographic patterns? How do cities contribute to competitiveness, growth and jobs? What is unique about living in cities? What power do cities have to direct their future development? In addition, a major effort is put into the development of a tentative typology of urban competitiveness.