Brussels, 3 January 2023 (MIA) - Almost 90% of people in the EU are satisfied with living in their city, shows the Union's Report on the quality of life in European cities 2023. However, fewer are satisfied in the cities in the Western Balkans, including Skopje and several European capitals.

 

On average, across all sampled cities, as well as in EU cities only, 31% stated that the quality of life in their city has increased over the past 5 years, 40% said it had stayed unchanged, and around 29% answered that the quality of life in their cities had declined.

 

In addition, smaller cities are perceived as being a better place to live for older people and for families with young children. People feel safer walking alone at night in smaller cities, and they perceive their city as being cleaner and less noisy than people living in larger cities. On average, people in non-capital cities are more satisfied with the availability of public spaces and health care, and with housing affordability. Non-capital cities are also seen as a better place to live for migrants and for families with young children, and people in non-capital cities are more satisfied with their local public administration.

 

The results of the 2023 report are obtained according to several criteria, including overall satisfaction levels with quality of life, and a number of features of city life, such as inclusiveness, loneliness, employment, safety, housing, environment, transport, culture, city services and corruption.

 

Residents’ satisfaction with living in their city 

 

The level of overall satisfaction varies significantly across cities. Out of 83 cities covered by the survey, Skopje is in the bottom 10 with a score of 72%. Miskolc (74%) and Podgorica (77%) have a slightly better ranking, with people less satisfied in Rome (71%), Belgrade (69%), Naples (66%), Tirana (66%), Istanbul (65%), Athens (65%) and Palermo with the lowest score of 62%.  

 

On the other hand, the top 10 include Zürich with 97%, followed by Copenhagen (96%), Groningen (96%), Gdańsk (95%), Leipzig (95%), Stockholm (95%), Geneva (95%), Rostock (94%), Cluj-Napoca (94%) and Braga (94%). 

 

People satisfied with living in their city, comparison between 2019 and 2023 

 

In terms of whether the quality of life has increased compared to 5 years ago, Skopje is next to last. Only 13% of its residents said that the quality of life in Skopje has increased between 2019 and 2023. Rome is last with the lowest score of 3%. 

 

Rome and Skopje are followed by Bologna with 14%, Stockholm and Munich with 15%, Barcelona and Turin with 16%, Malmo and Dortmund with 17%, and Berlin with 18%. 

 

The top 10 include Białystok (62%) and Gdańsk (60%), Cluj-Napoca (59%), Vilnius (56%), Ostrava (55%), Kraków (53%), Tallinn (53%), Sofia (52%), Warsaw (46%) and Antalya (45%).  

 

Good place for immigrants from other countries to live 

 

Only one in three people think that Skopje is a good place for immigrants. Thus, Skopje has the lowest score of 33% in the bottom 10 cities. 

 

 

Sofia is next to last with 49%, while Paris, Rome, Białystok, Belgrade, Verona, Ljubljana, Podgorica and Heraklion  have slightly better results. 

 

According to the results, the best place for immigrants is Cardiff with a score of 95% in the top ten cities. Cardiff is followed by Lisbon, Braga, Groningen, Gdańsk, Barcelona, Tyneside conurbation, Hamburg, Helsinki and Glasgow.  

 

Good place for LGBTIQ people to live  

 

Skopje is again among the bottom 10 cities when considered as a place for LGBTIQ people to live. It has a score of 38%, ranking it 75th.  

 

Diyarbakir has the lowest score with only 27%, with somewhat better conditions in Tirana, Istanbul, Ankara, Białystok, Piatra Neamţ and Podgortica. Heraklion and Belgrade rank better than Skopje. 

 

On the other hand, Zürich is most friendly to the LGBTIQ community with a highest score of 96%.

 

Good place for older people to live

 

Looking at the city ranking, Skopje is in the bottom 10, sharing the 73rd place with Belgrade.  

 

According to this criteria, Istanbul has the lowest score of 39% in the bottom 10 cities, followed by Rome, Tirana and Athns, Ljubljana, Naples, Sofija and Palermo.  

 

The best places for older people to live include Zürich, Rostock, Luxembourg and Piatra Neamţ with 95%, followed by Aalborg, Málaga, Białystok, Oviedo, Braga and Strasbourg in the top 10 cities. 

 

Good place for families with young children to live

 

In terms of a good place for families with young children to live, Skopje is among the bottom 10 yet again with 60%. Athens has a score of 61%, Rome and Sofia have 62%, and Amsterdam has 67%.  

 

 

Istanbul has the lowest score of 42% in the bottom 10 in this category, with Tirana and Ljubljana being next to last.

 

Cardiff has the top score of 96% as a city that is a good place for families with young children to live, followed by Oulu, Braga, Leipzig, Gdańsk, Rostock, Aalborg, Rennes, Geneva and Piatra Neamţ. 

 

People feeling safe walking alone at night in the city  

 

As regards feeling safe when walking alone at night, with a score of 60%, Skopje is not among the top 10 cities, but is neither among the bottom 10 cities in Europe.  

 

Rome is the city among the bottom 10 in terms of feeling safe, with the loewst score of 38%. The bottom 10 cities also include Athens, Marseille, Naples, Liège, Istanbul, Ostrava, Miskolc and Sofia.   

 

Of the top 10 cities, Copenhagen, Oviedo and Ljubljana top the list with a score of 87%, followed by Białystok, Groningen, Zürich, Aalborg, Braga, and Luxembourg.  

 

People who think it is easy to find a good job in the city

 

Palermo has the lowest score of 4% among the bottom 10 cities regarding this criteria. The list of bottom 10 cities is dominated by residents of Italy and Spain. 

 

Skopje has a somewhat better score in this regard, standing between 30% and 43%, a range also including Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Brussels, Maresille, etc. 

 

Prague is among the top 10 countries with 79% of its residents who believe it is easy to find a job in this city. 

 

Finding good housing at a reasonable price in the city

 

This is one of the two classifications in the report where Skopje is included among the top 10 cities. As many as 65% of its residents believe it is easy to find good housing in Skopje at a reasonable price.  

 

 

Tyneside conurbation has the same score, and the list also includes Aalborg, Oulu, Palermo, Piatra Neamţ, Oviedo, Białystok, Podgorica and Belfast.  

 

The bottom 10 cities include Geneva, Munich, Istanbul, Stockholm, Hamburg, Zürich, Paris, Luxembourg, Copenhagen and Bratislava.  

 

People using cars in a typical day

 

 

The second criteria regarding which Skopje is among the top 10 cities is according to its residents using cars in a typical day. With a score of 64%, Skopje is ranked third, only lagging behind Braga with 70% and Reykjavík with 68%. 

 

The bottom 10 cities under this criteria include Stockholm, Paris, Groningen, Copenhagen, Oslo, Zürich, Amsterdam, etc. 

 

People using public transport in a typical day   

 

When it comes to using public transport, Skopje is again among the bottom 10 cities with a score of 28%. 

 

The bottom 10 cities also include Nicosia, Tirana, Palermo, Podgorica, Reykyavik, Groningen, Braga, as well as Heraklion and Verona.  

 

People in Prague are the ones who use public transport the most, with a score of 71%, followed by Paris, with 62%, Bucharest with 61%, Stockholm with 59%, Ankara with 57%, Warsaw and Ostrava with 56%, Cluj-Napoca and Budapest with 55% and Belgrade with 54%.  

 

People cycling in a typical day  

 

In terms of cycling, Skopje is in the middle of the table with over 10%, together with London, Cardiff, Brussels, Warsaw, Barcelona, Bucharest, Budapest, Prague. Marseille, etc.

 

The top 10 cities in this category are from the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium. Groningen tops the list with the highest score of 46%.

 

Rome is among the bottom 10 cities with the lowest score of 5%, followed by Belgrade and Vilnius with 6%, Diyarbakir, Istanbul and Madrid with 7%, and Liège, Sofia, Ankara and Cluj-Napoca with 8%. 

 

 

Walking in a typical day

 

Though walking in a typical day gains popularity, Skopje is among the bottom 10 cities with a low score of 20%. 

 

Istanbul and Ankara hold the lowest score of 16% among the bottom 10 cities. 

 

On the other hand, Paris has the highest score of 40% among the top 10 cities, followed by Stockholm, Helsinki, Glasgow, Rennes, London, Manchester, Athens, Marseille and Madrid. 

 

People satisfied with cultural facilities in the city 

 

The report shows that people in Skopje are neither very satisfied with cultural facilities in the city. Skopje is among the bottom 10 cities with a score of 56%, followed by Heraklion, Diyarbakir, Naples, Palermo, Istanbul, Athens, as well as Valletta, Tirana and Podgorica.

 

Zürich has the highest score of 97% among the top 10 cities, also including Groningen, Tallinn, Helsinki, Gdańsk, Reykyavik, Luxembourg, Hamburg, Malmö and Vienna.  

 

People satisfied with green spaces in the city 

 

When it comes to green spaces, only 36% of the people in Skopje said they were satisfied with the green spaces in the city. 

 

The bottom 10 cities also include Naples, Heraklion, Palermo, Athens, Tirana, Valletta, Istanbul, Podgorica and Nicosia. 

 

 

Geneva tops the list, with 94% of its residents saying they are satisfied with green spaces in the city. The top 10 cities also include Malmö, Oslo, Munich, Helsinki, Groningen, etc. 

 

People satisfied with the quality of the air in the city

 

In terms of quality of the air, Skopje has the lowest score among the bottom 10 cities, i.e. only 12% of its residents said they were satisfied with the quality of the air in the city.  

 

Skopje is followed by Bucharest, Kraków, Paris, Athens, Turin, Tirana, Rome, Belgrade and Ostrava. 

 

Zürich heads the list of top 10 cities, with a score of 89% - residents who said they were satisfied with the quality of the air in the city. Zürich is followed by Helsinki, Rostock, Aalborg, Oulu, Groningen, Białystok, Reykyavik, Leipzig and Dublin.

 

People agreeing that there is corruption in the city’s local public administration

 

In Skopje, as many as 84% of people agree that there is corruption in the city's local public administration. Belgrade and Zagreb head the list of bottom 10 cities, with 88% and 87% respectively. 

 

According to the residents of Copenhagen and Zurich, these two cities have the lowest level of corruption in the local public administration with a score of 20%.

 

A sample of at least 839 residents was interviewed in each city, for a total of 71,153 completed interviews. The survey covers 83 cities across the EU, European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries, the United Kingdom, the Western Balkans and Türkiye and allows for comparison with the last edition of the survey, conducted in 2019.

 

 

European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, expressed satisfaction with the survey results, pointing out that quality is never an accident, but depends on intelligent effort. 

 

"Amenity and opportunity do not happen by chance – intelligent effort by Europe’s cities is key. European Cohesion Policy supports them, as part of our mission to ensure that no place is left behind. So it is encouraging to read that quality of life in European cities remains high: almost nine out of ten people report satisfaction with living in their city," Ferreira said.  

 

According to her, satisfaction in eastern EU cities continues to catch up with the average, however, there is still work to be done. 

 

Ferreira noted that policymakers will find practical insights, and citizens will find useful information in the report. 

 

"I myself draw 3 key lessons. First, that opportunities matter. Especially high-quality job opportunities, which are a key determinant of satisfaction. I take this as a timely reminder: we must ensure that all Europeans can access such opportunities – wherever they happen to live.

 

The second lesson, is that public services and public administration matter. Notably, mobility and congestion – satisfaction with public transport is another key determinant of satisfaction with your city. But public administration plays many other roles in life satisfaction: from town planning, to public services such as hospitals, schools and other amenities. This is why Cohesion Policy supports cities as they invest in all these sectors – as well as helping public authorities build their capacity to plan, and deliver, projects.

 

The third lesson, is that quality of life is higher in small and medium-sized cities. They feel safer, cleaner, and less noisy. They are seen as better places to live, at every point in the lifecycle – from families bringing up young children, to those growing old," Ferreira adds. 

 

According to her, all these lessons have important policy implications. No one benefits when jobs, especially high quality jobs, concentrate in just a few cities. 

 

"We all benefit from a more level playing field – a more even spread of economic activity. More opportunities in small and medium-size cities, and their surrounding areas. And reducing the high congestion and housing costs in large cities. These, along with many other valuable lessons, can be found throughout this report. I strongly encourage policy makers at every level to read it and benefit from it," said Ferreira. 

 

Photo: EU/MIA archive