The Colombian capital shares the list with cities such as Melbourne, Singapore, Chicago, Hong Kong or Toronto, and is the best ranked Latin American city in the Human Capital and Lifestyle category, which measures aspects such as the workforce as a percentage of total population, index of social progress and number of universities within the top 500 in the world.
The most recent version of the Ranking Global Cities of the Future 2021/2022, published by fDi Intelligence, the investment monitor of the Financial Times, highlights Bogota as one of the cities in the Top 10 Human Capital and Lifestyle. Colombia’s capital is ranked seventh in this category, which includes cities with a population of between 5 and 10 million inhabitants.
In this category, which is led by Melbourne, Sydney and Singapore, Bogota surpasses cities such as Toronto, Madrid, and Mexico City. The Human Capital and Lifestyle classification considers aspects such as the percentage of active workforce over the total population, the social progress index, and the number of universities within the top 500 in the world.
Bogota Region has the largest labor force in Latin America, with 6.3 million economically active people. This result is above the registered by capitals in the region such as Lima, Mexico City, Santiago and Buenos Aires.
“Human talent is one of the main attributes that have positioned Bogota as the most important investment destination in Latin America. In a scenario like the one facing the world today, having a young and prepared workforce allows us to be on a par with large international cities, as this recognition shows”, highlighted Juan Gabriel Perez, Executive Director of investment promotion agency Invest in Bogota.
Figures analyzed by Invest in Bogota show that the sum of the number of higher education graduates in the Santiago Metropolitan Region, the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, the Lima Metropolitan Area and Mexico City represents 71% of the total of higher education graduates registered in Bogotá Region during 2018.
Also, in higher education, the Universidad de Los Andes (6) and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (10) are among the 10 best universities in Latin America. Thanks to this, Bogota, along with Santiago, are the only two cities that have two universities within the regional top 10, according to the QS ranking.
The category in which Bogota was highlighted by the Financial Times publication also considers the number of higher education students as a percentage of the total population, life expectancy, abilities to attract and retain capital, and other areas related to quality of life.
In regards to the quality of life, according to the Mercer 2020 survey that measures the cost of living in the main cities of the world, Bogota is positioned as one of the least expensive metropolis to live in, surpassing other cities in the region such as Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Quito and Mexico City.
