The State of the City: Benchmarking Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland’s international performance 2024

The report explores Auckland’s performance among a high calibre group of liveable cities against a broader context where many cities across Asia and around the Pacific are adapting and innovating, and where the focus of cities efforts to decarbonise, increase affordability, and tackle social disparities has become more prominent.

The 2024 report finds that Auckland is rebounding after a period affected by post-pandemic conditions, floods and price inflation, but challenges persist given the competition from other peer cities, which forms the basis of two in-focus deep dives in the 2024 report:

• Innovation ecosystem: Exploring Auckland’s strengths in the context of a globally competitive landscape, opportunities to facilitate growth across the region’s innovation ecosystem, challenges that persist and the implications of these.
• Brand identity, diversity and global perception: Taking a closer look at Auckland’s perception in the context of trade, investment and talent, as well as an exploration of Auckland’s identity and its unique cultural advantage.

To improve Auckland's position and address its challenges, the report advocates focusing on three key areas.

Building Auckland’s competitive position in key industries: Citywide efforts to build complementary skills and investment pipelines. Connecting economic, spatial and infrastructure development to inform how jobs in advanced sectors will cluster, what specialisations will be built up and what talent settings innovative firms will need.

New Auckland-New Zealand policies that enable scale, speed and coordination in how infrastructure is delivered: Central/local strategic consensus and vision for infrastructure needs, and funding models capable of enabling essential infrastructure projects to service Auckland’s growth are crucial.

Conscientious and collaborative leadership about the city’s direction, appeal, and identity development: Auckland has a culture and diversity advantage that can be utilised to promote the city, remind people of the city’s special qualities, and crystallise the unique value that Auckland presents which separates it from other places.

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About the report

The State of the City report is part of a three-year study assessing Auckland's preparedness for the future of jobs, urban lifestyle, and climate change, focusing on five core pillars: opportunity and prosperity, innovation and knowledge, culture and experience, place and connectivity, and resilience and sustainability.

This Benchmarking Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland report is the second edition of an ‘outside-in’ review of Auckland’s international performance and perception.

Commissioned by the Committee for Auckland in collaboration with Deloitte and Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, with support from Koi Tu: the Centre for Informed Futures and the New Zealand Government's Auckland Policy Office, it is based on more than 120 global city benchmark studies, which together span more than 750 comparative metrics in which Auckland features.

The comprehensive report by The Business of Cities, will be an annual assessment benchmarking Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland's performance against other cities in Australia, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North America over a three year period.