Veolia Environnement has been a partner to cities for more than 150 years. The company anticipates the complexity of urban problems and their interaction so as to offer essential services that improve the quality of urban life. By 2030, 60% of the world population will be living in cities.
Veolia Environnement has now set up the Veolia Observatory of Urban Lifestyles to augment its knowledge of the city. The Observatory is publishing the findings of its first study, which was carried out by Ipsos, the French market research institute. The study examines the relationship between city dwellers and the place where they live.
A total of 8,500 people were surveyed in 14 cities: Alexandria, Beijing, Berlin, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Lyons, Mexico City, New York, Paris, Prague, Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo.

The typical city dweller, as seen by his or her peers, is aged around 30, single and with no children. They live in a tightly knit, but superficial, social network. They are seen as being, in the near future, pawns dedicated to productivity, living in a cold, unvarying universe.

Although they readily criticize their environment, city dwellers greatly appreciate that everything they want and need is close at hand. They complain about the cost of living, and do not take full advantage of the activities on offer as they are largely focused on their work. They define the city as a place where they can meet people, but are critical of the superficiality of relations and feel isolated. They are torn between the desire to leave and to stay, whether to raise children there or not. The city is a place for projecting both hopes and fears.

"The city means freedom" for all of the city dwellers surveyed. But this freedom is very quickly undermined by the cost of living, which is seen as a pressure by all of them: "To live well in the city, you have to earn a good living." There is another contradiction in feelings about the city: although seen as a place where you can meet people, it is also seen as being anonymous and a place where you can suffer from loneliness.

Urbanites love their city and are greatly attached to it, even if they sometimes say they want to leave it. The city both attracts and irritates them. It incites mixed, but always intense, feelings.

For city dwellers, quality of life means above all an acceptable cost of living and personal and property safety. Next come concerns relating to the environment, infrastructure, organization and services.

One offender: the car, in all the cities, the car is criticized for the noise, traffic jams and pollution it causes. City dwellers want a more appropriate means of transportation for their city.

One fear: safety is mainly a concern for the future, but is already very present in Mexico City and, to a lesser extent, in Tokyo.

Living in the city is a choice that is often dictated by family or work reasons, and is strongly motivated by a very independent state of mind: they are proud to be urbanites. In regards to choosing the city they live in, 75% of city dwellers state that they wanted to live where they live, rather than in any other city. Some 48% of respondents were not born in they city where they now live.
In all countries, the city is seen as being an expensive place to live.

A total 57% of urbanites believe that demographic growth will eventually have a negative impact on their city.