We're number two! We're number two!

It's probably not a good idea to put too much stock into rankings of this nature, but in case you need a reason to get all warm and fuzzy about how great Toronto is, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the Partnership for New York City have just ranked our humble hometown the second most "successful" city in the world. What exactly does that word mean in this context? For the purposes of this report, success is defined as a mix of financial, cultural and educational opportunity and is measured via 10 indicators, which include transportation and infrastructure, intellectual capital and innovation, and lifestyle assets (i.e. share of green space, skyline impact, etc).

The only city to top Toronto in the 28-city survey is New York. Trailing both NYC and Toronto in the top five are San Francisco, Stockholm and Sydney. TO picked up the most points for quality of living, clean air, skyscraper construction, and sports and leisure. And, just in case you're already dubious of the report's credibility, it's interesting to note that we come third last in the cost of public transportation. Sounds about right...

Despite the high ranking, the authors still deem Toronto a beta city "because it's not considered a part of the conversation with London, Paris, and New York for greatest city in the world," according to an article in the Atlantic about the survey. We do, however, have "all the building blocks of a superlative international city, beginning with smart ideas about sustainability and innovation." Based on those last two qualities, I'm going to take a wild guess and say that the data was collected prior to the election of our current mayor. Still it's nice to get kudos once in a while (even if they're of the beta type).

Check out the in depth statistics here.

Photo by c_pix in the blogTO Flickr pool.