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The Swedish capital of Stockholm has among the best reputation among world cities, according to a new report. Reputation Institute’s 2013 City Rep Trak Study, which surveyed more than 22,000 people from G8 countries earlier this year, ranked Stockholm at third place.

“People have images of a city on their mind when they are deciding to go on holiday there, to live or work there, or to buy products originated there,” says Fernando Prado, responsible for the Place Reputation Unit of Reputation Institute. “Our modeling demonstrates that a city that knows how to effectively manage its reputation can attract more tourists, greater investment or a bigger influx of talent”.

Sydney has the world’s best reputation. The rest of the top five cities include: Toronto, Stockholm, Vienna and Venice. At the opposite end of the scale are Cairo, Nairobi, Karachi, Tehran and Baghdad.

The polled participants ranked cities based on levels of trust, esteem, admiration and respect, as well as perceptions regarding 13 attributes, grouped into three dimensions: “Advanced Economy”, “Effective Government” and “Appealing Environment”.

Top Trends include:

• The reputation of a country affects the reputation of its cities – There is a demonstrated correlation between the reputation of a city and the reputation of the country in which it is located. In general terms, the reputation of a city is slightly above that of its respective country.
• American cities continue to improve their reputations – The worst appears to be over for the American cities, who this year re-enforced the improvement in their reputations.
• Cities in Italy and Greece are recovering – The recovery of both Greece’s and Italy’s reputations recorded in the Country RepTrak^® Study 2013 is also reflected in their cities.
• The “emerging” cities are trending downwards – While the growth in the reputations of emerging countries such as Mexico, South Korea, Brazil, Taiwan, Indonesia or Malaysia is positive, the reputations of the cities in these countries fall.
• Awareness helps, but awareness alone is not sufficient – Being a well-known city is not synonymous with having a good reputation. The cities with a good reputation, yet insufficient levels of awareness have a clear communication opportunity.
• Europe dominates the global stage in reputation – Europe has a clear dominance of the global reputation stage, with an average of 76.5 points and 15 cities listed within the top twenty.