The Metropolitans - who are they?

United Minds in Stockholm (who I worked for during 5 years, yay) has together with Metro (a free newspaper) interviewed 15 000 people from 30 cities around the world to find out who they are, and they have found a "metropolitan mindset". Check out the vid:

 


The Metropolitans identify themselves as strongly with their city (67%) as with their nation (69%).

- The city is our new nation. Rapid urbanisation combined with the effects of globalisation is producing
a class of citizens who share many values, habits and defining characteristics related to urban living,
says Paul Alarcón, Research Director, United Minds.

The constant meeting and melding of cultures, ideas and races in modern cities produces a global and open mindset. Metropolitans are excited by new challenges, not scared of them.  Metropolitans are affluent, socially liberal, mobile, globally and environmentally conscious and well-informed. They are less defined by race, culture and geography than by their common citizenship of cities. They
embrace the diversity of urban life - with 65% saying they would rather live in an ethnically diverse community than in a homogenous neighbourhood.  53% of Metropolitans also think same-sex marriage should be legal.

- Cities are inherently diverse. Tolerance and understanding are prerequisites to enjoy life in places
you have to share with millions of others. In the long run, the emergence of the Metropolitan mindset
is bad news for nationalist parties around the world, says Wilf Maunoir, Global Research Director,
Metro International.

Recent research strongly suggests that the better informed you are, the more broad-minded and tolerant you are likely to be. The Metropolitan survey reveals that city dwellers are heavy news consumers and that they are equally interested in international news (67%) as they are in local news (65%).
Their interest in the world goes further than reading newspapers. Nine out of 10 are interested in travelling and visiting new places and every second Metropolitan has travelled abroad for leisure in the past year. As urbanization continues globally and cities get increasingly connected to each other, the future for narrowmindness and nationalism looks bleak.