London vs New York City

It’s no secret that London and New York are equivocally referred to as two of the best cities in the world.  Residents of London (Londoners) and New York (New Yorkers) are fiercely proud of the weight and popularity of these global destinations. After all, here is where dreams are said to materialize into reality. So how do the two cities weigh up in terms of cold, hard facts? We review One Fine Stays very interesting infographic and assess their take on the commercial power wielded by these two magnetic and charming locations.

The infographic starts by stating the absolute population of London vs New York. The visual cues and font colours used here are easy on the eye but also attention catching. I can see easily that London has a much higher % of national population than New York. This tells me the difference in size of the two nations and geographic spread of population also. London establishes its worth as a central commercial hub of the world. Its primary airport, Heathrow hosts 69 million passengers a year vs. New York’s comparatively paltry looking 49 million number.

The most startling fact that is represented through a cartoon figure is the height of the tallest building. I always imagined New York would outdo London here, but clearly I was mistaken. The infographic’s clean and precise two column format tells us on the left that The Shard (309 m and 95 floors) clearly overtakes NYC’s 8 Spruce Street (256 m , 76 floors). This consistent look and feel by the designer really makes for seamlessly convenient comparisons between the two cities. This first section of the info graphic ends with a small fact on number of buses that ply in both cities. Again, the distinction in types of bus used is nicely portrayed via an image of each right next to each other.

The next section compares the existent real estate scenario. It takes another colour that is truly symbolic of real estate industry in any country – green, the colour of money. This part is all money talk and nothing else. Most expensive post/zip code to live in, average housing prices, average rentals and smallest house size are all factual indicators of the standard of living, gaps in society and situation of the real estate market in both cities. In fact, this part really takes me back to the days when I used to play Monopoly. The graphical houses are a prime example of why such nostalgia is hard hitting out here.

Public transport is the lifeline that can make or break a city. Lets have a look at the subway facilities of London and New York in parallel. London scores better only in terms of number of subway escalators. On all other fronts (Number of subway stations, daily subway commuters, miles of subway track and % of track underground) New York outscores London. These stats do not in any way prove that NYC’s subway is superior to London’s. This is however an important part of the infographic and the designers should have kept some sort of rating stars for each of the sections to make it easier for readers to summarize points of both cities.

Lastly, we have some key facts. Average age, Number of hotel rooms, population per sq mile, average salary, price of a cup of coffee and most popular baby names signify how densely populated a city is and how thriving it is as well. All in all, the individual sections in this infographic are well laid out and systematically organized for reading. However, if the designers had thought of rating systems that summarized all sectional points to give one final ranking to each city, that would have been helpful. All in all, an interesting and useful infographic for reference, but not essential for everyday purposes.

OneFineStay.com weighed London against New York and have lined up a contest of metropolitan proportions. Who’ll win the bout? You can help decide by joining the debate on Twitter using the hashtag #LDNvsNYC or leave us a comment below.

London vs New York City Infographic

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