The ranking's twenty best-performing cities
Key points
Why learning cities? To prepare a ranking of 66 cities we used the criteria coined by urbanist Richard Florida. While creating our ranking in line with his concepts, we considered five factors: • manufacturing infrastructure means a firm network, including new economy companies. • Human infrastructure, reflecting the number of qualified workers and job offers tailored for them. • Physical and communication infrastructure included research laboratories, roads and internet centres. • The measure of cooperation includes applications. • The ease of doing business touches upon the number of officials servicing companies or the length of court proceedings.
The best manufacturing infrastructure: Warsaw. The capital city serves as the home of the largest number of companies, with more and more companies establishing their headquarters here. Poznań and Kraków also ranked in the top three. The fourth place is occupied by Śląsk's Gliwice, the location of the General Motors plant and several other ones that produce auto components. Rzeszów ranks only 12th, mainly because there already are plants associated with research and development, but new ones are not being created. The least infrastructure to create high tech or companies that would compete in this are is located in Wałbrzych, Grudziądz and Chełm.
Qualified workers: Rzeszów. The capital of Podkarpacie won the first place in this category because of the quality of human capital, or the knowledge collected in the heads of its residents. Opole came in second within that criterion, Warsaw third. These are large academic centres that guarantee a steady inflow of qualified workers into the local labour market, but also a place where such people will find employment. Poznań and Kraków hold the next two spots. The worst in term of human capital are Jastrzębie-Zdrój, Zabrze and Świnoujście.
Physical and communication infrastructure: Warsaw. The second place was taken by Zabrze, the centre of the Górny Śląsk Industrial Region. Katowice grabbed the third spot, while Gliwice ranked fourth and Chełm fifth. Cities in the Śląsk region are ranked highly in this category because they generally stand out among Polish cities in terms of their infrastructure. These centres have the best quality roads, but also the most expensive research laboratories per resident. They also enjoy the biggest number of internet centres on average. Trailing at the bottom under these measures are Częstochowa, Leszno, Biała Podlaska, Olsztyn i Toruń.
Best cooperation between companies: Rzeszów. Poznań comes in second, Kraków third. In these leading cities, companies are most willing to apply for EU financial support for innovation, people are least likely to commit economic crimes and citizens are most willing to cooperate for the greater good of all. Warsaw took the fourth place in this category. Krosno is fifth with its citizens having a relatively high level of social capital. In terms of cooperation, the worst performers were companies and respondents from Chorzów, Jaworzno, Piekary Śląskie, Żory and Wałbrzych.
Ease of running a business. Wałbrzych. This city is currently a very good place to launch a company: little competition, low barriers of market entry, developing economic zone and slowly rising wages. Importantly, local administration wants companies to run business there. It hired a large number of officials to serve companies and court proceedings take only a few months. In terms of business friendliness, Kraków, Gdańsk, Sopot, Gdynia and Warsaw take the last positions.
to sum up
Warsaw is the leader of the ranking with 54.9 points out of a possible 100. Rzeszów barely missed the top spot and it is possible it will find itself there in the near future. The city is one of the leaders in technological changes not just in Poland, but also in Europe. Cities that attract businesses also found themselves ranked highly: Poznań is third and Kraków fourth. In the top twenty, we find both the biggest cities, as well as smaller ones with a specific specialisation, such as Krosno with the glass works or Tychy with a modern brewery. Brining up the rear are Żory, Jaworzno and Piekary Śląskie, losing to the leader by 40 points. 
* Polityka Insight prepared the ranking of learning cities on behalf of the Polish Robert Schuman Foundation.
