The 2018 City Index on Talent Ecology is released at a keynote forum of the Ningbo Talents, Science and Technology Week in the city on Sept 20. [Photo by Wu Yeyun/ chinadaily.com.cn]

The 2018 City Index on Talent Ecology was released at a keynote forum of the Ningbo Talents, Science and Technology Week on Sept 20, with the city being ranked among the second class cities in terms of its overall talent ecosystem.

The index, the first of its kind in China, was jointly initiated by Welian.com, a professional financing platform, the Academy of Global Zheshang Entrepreneurship of Zhejiang University, and Liepin.com, a well-known talent recruitment platform.

Based on the data of 28 cities in China, it analyzes a city's appeal to talents from five aspects, including the urban economy, life standards, consumption level, innovation capacity, and natural environment, instead of focusing only on the economy as previous studies did.

"In a healthy talent ecosystem, such factors as housing prices, innovation capacity, environment, cultural atmosphere and public services are also what affect people's choices to settle down in a city or not, in addition to the urban economy," said Liu Rongjun, co-founder of Welian.com.

The index shows that Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen rank among first class cities for their overall strength, and Ningbo ranks among the second class, or 7th of the 28 cities in its overall talent ecosystem.

Furthermore, judging from disposable income per capita and population density, Ningbo enjoys a relatively high salary and lower population density, suggesting that the city has great potential in attracting and accommodating talents.