Leading management consulting firm Kearney released its 2022 Global Cities Report assessing 156 cities around the world around the world across five dimensions: business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, and political engagement.
In Kearney’s 2022 Global Cities Index Riyadh moved up four spots overall to #70 with a remarkable 46-point gain in ‘cultural experience,’ one of the five dimensions the study scores. This was the highest points jump in the category.
Arab News reports that Rudolph Lohmeyer, a Kearney partner with its National Transformations Institute, said: “The significant jump in the rankings in Riyadh in cultural experience can be attributed to the dedicated effort toward bringing a vibrant society pillar under Vision 2030 to life.”
According to the Ministry of Culture, as of 2021 Saudi Arabia had 304 museums, 85 public, ministry-affiliated libraries, 262 theaters, 75 galleries and exhibition halls, 54 cinemas, and 20 literary coffee shops. Many of them in Riyadh.
Riyadh led the region in the capital markets section and remained top for foreign-born population. It also moved four points up the rankings for business activity and human capital despite higher-than-expected global inflation, the ongoing economic and political fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the escalating effects of climate change.
The Global Cities Report includes both a Global Cities Index for current performance rankings and a Global Cities Outlook for potential future performance.
