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Aberdeen and Edinburgh are among the best cities to live and work in the UK, coming in sixth and seventh place respectively, according to the Demos-PwC Good Growth for Cities Index.

The north-east city's continued recovery saw it overtake the Scottish capital this year which fell back one place.

Increases in income, jobs growth and skills development opportunities have been the drivers of growth among the seven Scottish cities on the index between 2016-18.

Glasgow was the most improved Scottish city in the 2016-2018 index, and the 13th most improved overall. However, Scotland’s largest city continues to sit midway in the table, increasing one position this year to 24.

Its improvement this year was led by a strong performance in the jobs metric, where it was 11 overall.

In total, Glasgow performed above the national average in five of the 11 indicators, with absolute increases in nine of the 11.

Jobs was the city’s best scoring indicator, with other stand-outs including work-life balance, skills and income distribution.

The index, which is based on a basket of 11 indicators that show there is more to life, work and wellbeing than GDP alone, measures 42 cities across the UK in its national index.

These include employment, health, income and skills, while housing affordability, commuting times, environmental factors and income inequality are also included, as is the number of new business start-ups.

Oxford retained its place as the top ranked city in the UK this year, followed by Reading and Southampton. Bristol and Milton Keynes round off the top five.

Bradford is the most improved city compared with the previous index, ahead of Liverpool and Norwich. Glasgow is listed as the 13th most improved overall.

Of the three Scottish cities which make the national index, Aberdeen scored above the national average in seven of the 11 indicators.

Its increase from ninth to sixth on the index, having dropped outside the top 10 in 2017, confirms that the Granite City is well on the way to recovering from the oil and gas downturn.

The city’s higher position is down to improvements in health, work-life balance, housing affordability and income distribution, while it is the best performing city in the UK when measuring house prices relative to earnings.

Aberdeen stood out from other Scottish cities due to its above average performance on new businesses.

Edinburgh saw above absolute increases in five indicators including jobs growth, income and work-life balance but house price increases have led to a further reduction in owner occupation as house prices to earnings fell below the national average.

Income distribution was the worst performing variable for the city. Transport – which takes commuting times into account – was the Scottish capital’s best performing variable. Edinburgh’s improvement in this year’s index was the smallest of the Scottish cities, sitting at 29th of the 42 UK cities, 10 of which showed declines in performance.

Stewart Wilson, head of government and public sector for PwC Scotland said: “Scotland is in an incredibly advantageous position as the world moves into a new age where digitalisation and climate change dominate business and political agendas.

“With huge natural resources and a commitment to lower emissions, this year’s Good Growth for Cities index shows that Scotland’s key cities are outperforming the national average in carbon emissions per average earnings, and in improving skills.

“Challenges remain, of course. This year’s index shows that despite widespread perceptions, Scotland is becoming a less affordable place to live, with owner occupation down across the board. Edinburgh and Stirling have also seen notable decreases in income distribution.

Health also continues to be a drag on Scotland’s cities performance, which reinforces the requirement to alleviate long-term sickness issues.

“As a country known for its entrepreneurial spirit and successes, it’s disappointing to see our cities underperform in new business creation.”