Cities performance indicators

Neal Peirce wrote this week (Citiscope) about the new standard to measure the performance of cities. The new standard, known as ISO 37120, was produced by the International Organisation for Standardisation and proposes a set of indicators that cities should   use to assess their performance and compare themselves with peer cities around the globe. The 46 core performance indicators (46 out of 100) are listed below and cover most fields of city life and operation, economy, quality of life, infrastructure, and governance:

Economy

• City’ s unemployment rate
• Assessed value of commercial and industrial properties as a percentage of total assessed value of all properties
• Percentage of city population living in poverty

Finance

• Debt service ratio (debt service expenditure as a percent of a municipality’ s own-source revenue)

Education

• Percentage of female school-aged population enrolled in school
• Percentage of students completing primary education
• Percentage of students completing secondary education
• Primary education student/teacher ratio

Health

• Average life expectancy
• Number of in-patient hospital beds per 100 000 population
• Number of physicians per 100 000 population
• Under age five mortality per 1 000 live births

Safety

• Number of police officers per 100 000 population
• Number of homicides per 100 000 population

Shelter

• Percentage of city population living in slums

Environment

• Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration
• Particulate matter (PM10) concentration
• Greenhouse gas emissions measured in tonnes per capita

Energy

• Total residential electrical use per capita (kWh/year)
• Percentage of city population with authorized electrical service
• Energy consumption of public buildings per year (kWh/m2)
• Percentage of total energy derived from renewable sources, as a share of the city’ s total energy consumption

Transportation

• Km of high capacity public transport system per 100 000 population
• Km of light passenger transport system per 100 000 population
• Annual number of public transport trips per capita
• Number of personal automobiles per capita

Telecommunication and Innovation

• Number of internet connections per 100 000 population
• Number of cell phone connections per 100 000 population

Solid waste

• Percentage of city population with regular solid waste collection (residential)
• Total collected municipal solid waste per capita
• Percentage of city’ s solid waste that is recycled

Water and Sanitation

• Percentage of city population with potable water supply service
• Percentage of city population with sustainable access to an improved water source
• Percentage of population with access to improved sanitation
• Total domestic water consumption per capita (litres/day)

Wastewater

• Percentage of city population served by wastewater collection
• Percentage of the city’ s wastewater that has received no treatment
• Percentage of the city’ s wastewater receiving primary treatment
• Percentage of the city’ s wastewater receiving secondary treatment
• Percentage of the city’ s wastewater receiving tertiary treatment

Fire and emergency response

• Number of firefighters per 100 000 population
• Number of fire related deaths per 100 000 population
• Number of natural disaster-related deaths per 100 000 population

Governance

• Voter participation in last municipal election (as a percentage of eligible voters)
• Women as a percentage of total elected to city-level office

Urban Planning

• Green area (hectares) per 100 000 population

THE FULL LIST OF 100 INDICATORS: ISO 37120 List of indicators

Sources:
Citiscope
ISO 37120
*