Katowice leads the ranking of best cities to live in

According to Business Insider, which analysed indicators such as unemployment, wages and housing availability, Katowice is the best city to live in. Among Poland’s fifteen largest cities, the capital of the Silesian Province proved to be the best. The second place went to Poznań whereas the third one to Kraków.

“Our strategy for attracting and retaining new residents is based on 3 pillars. The first one is a job. We have one of the lowest levels of unemployment in Poland. You can find attractive and well-paid jobs in modern sectors of economy. The second pillar is to provide attractive housing e.g., with the help of Katowicki TBS or a popular “Apartment for Renovation” program. The third pillar is to ensure a high quality of life,” enumerates Marcin Krupa, the mayor of Katowice.

Business Insider analysed the statistics on unemployment, wages, prices of new apartments and rental costs in more than a dozen of major Polish cities based on data from January 2023. The editors relied on data from the Statistics Poland, Expander and Rentier.io. The report shows that the lowest unemployment at the end of January 2023 was recorded in Poznań with 1%. Katowice came second in this category (1.4%), and the third place went to Warsaw (1.5%).

Katowice is home to 96 business service centres (IT, SSC/GBS, BPO and R&D), employing more than 25,000 people, with a dominant specialization in IT processes. “By attracting new investors who offer attractive jobs, we influence the development of the city, but also the development of the careers of local residents, thereby improving their salaries and living standards,” says Mariusz Jankowski, the head of the Investors Assistance Department. “It is worth mentioning that in the FDI Strategy foreign investment ranking published by the Financial Times last year, Katowice was ranked fifth among the ten large European cities of the future. The investors’ reasons for choosing our city have remained unchanged for years and include a favourable location, costs and market potential such as the labour market and the size of the stock of educated workers in relation to other countries and cities in the CEEE region,” Mariusz Jankowski adds.

The authors of the Business Insider report point out that there are noticeable disparities among Poland’s largest cities in terms of average gross wages. In this category, Katowice ranked 4th with an average salary of PLN 7,700.00. Only in 3 cities (Gdańsk, Warszawa and Kraków) the average salary was over PLN 8,000.00. Meantime, the national average is PLN 6,883.96 gross.

The last factor studied by Business Insider was the availability of housing, defined by how many sq. m. of housing can be bought with the average salary. The leader in this category is Katowice, where 1.08 sq. m. can be bought for a monthly salary. In contrast, the average cost of renting a 50-square-meter apartment in the capital of the Silesian province is PLN 2,350.00.

The quality of life is also influenced by the leisure offer. “We are committed to ensuring that every resident can go to an interesting concert, sports or cultural event after work. We are a UNESCO Creative City in music, and our cultural offer is appreciated and noted in national rankings. Quality of life also means the opportunity to relax surrounded by nature – half of Katowice area is green – forests, parks, squares, ponds. We also focus on active entertainment – we have more than 190 km of bicycle paths, the largest network of city bicycles in the Silesian Voivodeship,” the mayor Marcin Krupa lists the city’s assets.

In Katowice, you can go kayaking or rollerblading on special paths. Quality of life also means access to services that are important in everyday life – such as nurseries and kindergartens. Over the past few years, Katowice has significantly increased the number of places in such facilities. We can also take pride in efficient public transportation – transportation hubs and new buses.

Summary of cities in terms of unemployment, wages and housing availability according to Business Insider (rankings in the table):

	CITY	LOWEST UNEMPLOYMENT	HIGEST AVERAGE SALARY	HOURSING AVAILIBILITY
1	Katowice	2	4	1
2	Poznań	1	5	9
3	Kraków	6	1	12
4	Warszawa	3	2	15
5	Gdańsk	8	3	10
6	Bydgoszcz	7	13	3
7	Gdynia	5	7	11
8	Szczecin	9	8	6
9	Wrocław	4	6	13
10	Częstochowa	10	14	2
11	Toruń	11	11	5
12	Łódź	13	12	4
13	Rzeszów	12	10	8
14	Lublin	14	9	7
15	Białystok	15	15	14

The link to the full version of the ranking: https://bit.ly/3yfVSmg

Prepared by: Social Communication Department of Katowice City Hall