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A new study has ranked the City of Johannesburg among 38 of the best cities to raise a family around the world.
This study was conducted by a group of experts from Compare the Markets Australia (CMA), who ranked the countries based on 12 data points across four categories. These 12 scores out of 10 were then averaged for each city to calculate the index ranking, with a higher score representing a better city to raise a family.
The four main categories, as outlined by CMA, are:
- Safety and wellbeing: safety, happiness, family benefits spending, combined statutory parental leave and child vaccination rates.
- Family activities: things to do, green spaces per 100,000 people, and walkability.
- Education: the percentage of GDP spent by the government on education.
- Expenses category: average cost of living, healthcare costs, and average income.
According to the index, The Swedish capital Stockholm ranked first out of 38 cities to raise a family, scoring 6.57/10 – narrowly beating Paris by 0.02 points.
“Stockholm took first place thanks to high scores in five of the 12 data points examined,” said CMA. “This included Sweden having the highest percentage of GDP spent on education out of any other nation on the index (7.2% of GDP).”
Additionally, Sweden had the third-highest happiness score at 7.4, the third-highest government spending on family benefits (3.4% of GDP), and the fifth-biggest combined parental leave at 68 weeks.
At a city level, Stockholm is in the top 10 for green spaces, with 23.53 parks and gardens per 100,000 residents. While Stockholm performed poorly for the number of child-friendly activities and things to do (coming in 30th place), the Swedish city performed well enough across all 12 data points that Stockholm took the number one spot.
Just beaten out by Stockholm was Paris, scoring 6.55/10. this was followed by Tokyo (6.41/10), Sydney (6.19/10), and Helsinki (6.15/10) rounding off the top five.
South Africa
The City of Johannesburg ranked 23rd, with a score of 4.95 out of 10. Joburg ranked highly in affordable living, healthcare costs, parental leave, and things to do as a family. However, it fell short in safety and wellbeing.
Interestingly, CMA noted that of the 38 cities, six of them are from the USA, but all of them except New York were in the bottom 10 of the index.
Washington D.C. was second last at 3.33/10, Los Angeles and Dallas tied for fourth-last at 3.67, Chicago scored 3.85/10, placing it sixth from the bottom, while San Francisco had the seventh-worst score at 3.92/10.
According to the Data, these cities had some of the lowest safety scores in comparison to other cities from the index, low walkability measures, some of the highest average cost of living figures and expensive healthcare costs.
While New York had a high number of kid-friendly activities, most of these American cities fared poorly or averagely in other data points apart from average income, where some had higher scores.
The table below shows the data and indexed score for all 17 countries.
Read: Strictest road laws in the world – South Africa vs the USA, UK, Germany, Australia, and more
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