Metro Futures

Metro Futures is the global data platform of Metropolis, the World Association of the Major Metropolises, built to support evidence-based urban leadership. It brings metropolitan-scale data, strategies and foresight together in one open and transparent platform, co-built with the more than 70 cities it includes, out of the 160+ member cities of the association.

The platform starts from a simple problem: in an age of misinformation, reliable information is scarce, and it is needed by city leaders as much as by journalists, researchers, businesses, NGOs and the general public. Good data pinpoints needs, directs investment toward impact, builds public trust, tracks progress and makes collaboration possible.

In practice, Metro Futures works as a sequence of simple steps: analyse, compare, learn and adapt. Visual dashboards place any city among its peers, with indicators such as air quality, public space, mobility, education and healthcare that can be filtered by region, income level or similar cities. A strategy tracker records the plans cities have adopted, and each city profile gathers key findings and shareable factsheets.

Tools & Stories turns the database into a knowledge platform. The indicators show what is happening in cities; this section explains what it means and what urban leaders can do about it, through insights on metropolitan governance (Resilience in Motion, Beyond the Status Quo), Citymaker’s guides on future-proofing megacities and strategic foresight, expert interviews, factsheets and a methodology section.

A Foresight Toolkit completes the platform. Built around mapping, influencing and mainstreaming, it offers four scenarios for 2040 and a six-step process to develop a city’s preferred future, tested in the Solutions Lab workshops with city directors.

The logic of the whole is the passage from data to action: to analyse (collect and process urban data), to compare (identify patterns and challenges), to connect (link cities so that they share knowledge and experiences), to learn (turn shared experiences into collective knowledge) and to apply (turn insights into policy and action). Different users enter at different points: a mayor preparing an international summit, a policymaker grounding a strategic plan in global evidence, a journalist looking for a story in the data.

“Several aspects of the Solutions Lab workshop stand out as particularly useful for my work, especially how embracing adaptive leadership and collaborative approaches can transform challenges into opportunities for growth and development.” Participant, Solutions Lab.