The authorative Financial Times has proclaimed Eindhoven the European City of the Future in the category of cities with a population of up to 250,000 inhabitants. This honour was awarded to the biggest city in Brabant largely owing to its favourable conditions for business development, economic potential and infrastructure.

Every two years, the renowned fDi Magazine of the international business newspaper, the Financial Times, ranks the European cities and regions based on their economic performance. Aspects assessed included a favourable environment to attract foreign investors, quality of infrastructure, labour market, various cost factors and the residential and social climate. To rank the cities, a distinction was made between economic regions, European cities with more than 1 million inhabitants and other European cities that were grouped into a certain category according to their population sizes. Eindhoven in the ‘micro cities’ category, up to 250,000 inhabitants, was proclaimed the most business-friendly city in Europe. Eindhoven consequently outranked other cities like Geneva in Switzerland, Aarhus in Denmark and the Dutch cities of Maastricht and Venlo. Eindhoven also scored extremely well in terms of economic strength. In this field, Eindhoven came second after Cambridge, in the United Kingdom, and did better than cities such as Basel and Grenoble. Finally, Eindhoven attained 4th position in the top 5 in the field of infrastructure.

Top position
Thanks to its high scores in its category, Eindhoven was proclaimed by the fDi panel as European City of the Future 2010/2011. This top position afforded the city 20th place in the top 25 of all the European cities that were ranked. In the 2010/2011 total ranking, which was led by the trio London, Paris and Moscow, Amsterdam (12th place) was, besides Eindhoven, the only other Dutch city represented. In this top 25, Eindhoven beat Warsaw, Helsinki, Manchester and Budapest!

Publication 'European Cities and Regions of the Future 2010/11'

Article FDi Magazine