Toronto may be the nation’s largest metro and the main driver of its economy, but it barely punches its own weight when it comes to the members of Canada’s Olympic team. The real standouts of this Olympic Games are smaller metros like Kingston, London, Windsor, and Guelph, which are home to far greater concentrations of Olympians than one might expect given their size.
In total medal count, Canada is faring fairly well. But by other, more meaningful measures not so much.With the help of colleagues at the University of Toronto Martin Prosperity Institute Charlotta Mellander and Patrick Adler, Richard Florida ranked each nation’s overall medal performance by their population, size of their economy, and the number of athletes on their Olympic teams.
Researchers have been saying for years Toronto is seeing an increase in inequality and a segmenting of its population by wealth, but a new study from the University of Toronto’s Martin Prosperity Institute puts this into some perspective.
Recent years have seen increasing apprehension over rising inequality and the growth of the so-called “1 percent.” For all the concern
expressed about the rise of the global super-rich, there is very little
empirical research related to them, especially regarding their location across the cities and metro areas. Our research uses detailed data from
Forbes on the more than 1,800 billionaires across the globe to
examine the location of the super-rich across the world’s cities and
metro areas.
City brands and the making, management and communication of a city’s strongest assets in the eyes of potential residents, visitors, investors and students, has been a key occupation of economic development professionals all over the world. In this interview, Richard Florida explains why the Creative Classes are so important in achieving city strength and a competitive position.