Poor scores for congestion, air quality and shortage of affordable housing prevent UK capital from taking top spot in new Sustainable Cities Index

London is the second most sustainable city in the world – ahead of Copenhagen and behind only Frankfurt – but scores poorly for congestion, declining air quality, a lack of investment in infrastructure and a chronic shortage of affordable housing, according to a new Sustainable Cities Index.

Manchester and Birmingham also made the global top 50 of the report from design consultancy Arcadis, based on analysis by the Centre for Economics and Business Research. Birmingham scored well on air pollution, water sanitation and the lack of threat of natural catastrophe. Manchester performed highly in literacy and work-life balance.

The Sustainable Cities Index ranks cities on 20 indicators in five key areas: the economy, business, risk, infrastructure and finance. It also breaks the results down into three sub-indices – social, environmental and economic – which combine to provide a ranking of each city’s overall sustainability. Click on the tabs at the top of the chart below to see how cities performed in each category.

The least sustainable cities according to the index were some of the fastest growing in Asia, with Jakarta 45th, Manila 46th, Mumbai 47th, Wuhan 48th and New Delhi 49th. Nairobi was 50th.

But the report warned that in many global cities, environmental and economic achievements came at a cost to cities’ social performance. Amsterdam struck the best balance globally, with a relatively consistent ranking in all three sub-incides.

The 50 cities were chosen to give wide geographical coverage and varied levels of economic development, expectations of future growth and sustainability challenges.