Determining Indicators of Quality of Life Differences in European Cities

Comparing cities by the use of indicators representing numerous aspects of urban life is crucial to policy decisions, such as the funding allocation for urban development. Principal Component Analysis reveals a small number of indicators – from an initial set of 46 – which have a high impact on the overall differences between the selected cities of each of the ten countries, and five time frames that were analysed. Those selected indicators are spread over the initial groups, representing environmental, human, manufactured and social urban capital as well as demographic aspects. They cover current political debate on environmental, infrastructural and migration difficulties in cities, safety and especially security impairment stemming from anonymity and poverty in densely populated areas as well as population changes leading to space shortage in larger cities, or even abandonment in smaller cities. Furthermore, a second analysis reveals that the most important indicators for relative comparisons of possible funding targets depend on the geographic level (urban, regional, national) under consideration and thus the amount of funding for urban development should not be measured by regional or national indicator values