Science

Putting City Rankings into Perspective

We’ve all seen those rankings of cities: best economy, best food, worst driving, and many many more. I’ve even done my own: cutting out the middle man and simply asking people’s opinions of different places. But many are skeptical of these rankings. So when Carl Bialik of the Wall Street Journal wrote about the rankings […]

We've all seen those rankings of cities: best economy, best food, worst driving, and many many more. I've even done my own: cutting out the middle man and simply asking people's opinions of different places. But many are skeptical of these rankings.

So when Carl Bialik of the Wall Street Journal wrote about the rankings of cities, I got a chance to provide my thoughts on these lists:

"...my hunch is that for every superlative you can think of, there’s a ranking," said Samuel Arbesman, an applied mathematician who has studied city rankings. "And conversely, for every city you can think of, there’s a ranking that can make it look good (or bad)."

We often take too much interest in these rankings (and they are fun to follow), but recognizing how little they mean puts matters into perspective.

More on this topic here.

Top image:Pam Broviak/Flickr/CC