Need a change of scenery?
Before packing up and moving to a new city, there are the hard numbers to consider: cost of living, exchange rate, salary potential, number of schools. But evaluating just how much you’ll enjoy living there is a bit tougher to assess.
Enter Culturama: A web app launched this month by the city of Paris, Culturama is designed to gauge the cultural offerings of different cities around the world.
Here’s how it works:
Users select three of 10 criteria, such as libraries, restaurants, theaters, museums and even diversity, which is calculated as the percentage of the population that’s foreign-born. Then, using data from the World Cities Culture Forum, Culturama offers the top three cities with the most offerings of those criteria.
It also gives the specifics: According to the results, London’s population is 36% foreign born, has 215 museums, 353 public libraries and 860 cinema screens.
The app does have limits. Its list of cities is limited to Amsterdam, Austin, Bogota, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Dubai, Edinburgh, Hong Kong, Istanbul, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Melbourne, Montreal, Moscow, New York, Paris, Rome, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, Taipei, Tokyo, Toronto, Vienna and Warsaw.
Large cities like Paris, London and New York often are among the top choices. But after searching, users can also scroll over other cities to see how they stack up.
