Glasgow in top European cities for people considering creative careers

Glasgow has been ranked as the seventh best city in Europe for a new creative career.

Many graduates also choose to stay and remain in Glasgow after finishing studies, a council meeting heard.

Glasgow city leader Susan Aitken said she was delighted to see acknowledgement “this month” from Adobe Express about Scotland’s biggest city being rated as seventh among European cities for those considering a creative career.

Speaking at Thursday’s full council meeting the SNP councillor said Glasgow is indeed an active and culturally vibrant city.

She said: “We were placed only behind London in the UK and the same ballpark as cities like Vienna and Stockholm and ahead of Zurich and Barcelona. That is the type of company we like to keep in Glasgow. We know ourselves that we live and work in a great European city.It is always good to hear others say it too.”

She added: “The presence of great art and design schools in the city along with our thriving museums were cited as reasons for this ranking and these are institutions that not only draw people to our city they also keep them here.”

The politician was responding to a question from fellow party councillor Laura Doherty asking what progress is being made towards a council ‘Grand Challenge Mission 4’ in the council’s strategic plan to support the city to be active and culturally vibrant.

Councillor Aitken said since the launch of the strategic plan in 2022 there has been a refreshed vision for libraries, a tourism and visitor plan and a cultural strategy.

The Langside councillor told the meeting how there will also be an events strategy, community learning and development plan and physical activity and sports strategy in the coming year.

Councillor Doherty also asked about the levels of graduate retention in comparison to other cities.

Councillor Aitken said: “Graduate retention rates are one of the areas in the city economy where we perform particularly strongly within the context of the UK. In fact within UK core cities we sit second only to Bristol in terms of our graduate retention rate.”

She added: “Just under half of students who come to study in Glasgow choose to then stay in Glasgow and live and work here for the longer term. That is incredibly important and I think an often overlooked and under appreciated element of Glasgow’s economic success.”