How can the ‘Nordic Way’ inspire global urban transformation?

The Nordic capitals have mastered what many describe as the “soft city”: Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, and Helsinki consistently rank among the most liveable and happiest cities in the world, and are recognised for steadily pursuing the green transition. Yet from a global capital markets perspective, these high-quality cities remain under scaled and fragmented.

Our report, ‘The Nordic Way’, examines how the Nordic capitals secure long-term resilience across climate, infrastructure and governance systems, drawing on insights from 103 senior leaders and urban stakeholders across public authorities, utilities, investors, developers, businesses and civil society. Their perspectives were gathered through a series of roundtables and in-depth interviews across the Nordic capitals.

Building on the lessons of ‘The Copenhagen Way’ that Ramboll developed in collaboration with Urban Partners and BLOXHUB, and from the experiences of Copenhagen’s own turnaround from near bankruptcy, the report shows that cities can achieve systemic transformation within a single generation when vision, trust, and cross-sector collaboration are aligned.

The conversations revealed a common challenge. The Nordic capitals possess remarkable strengths individually yet often function as separate systems rather than a coordinated region, which reduces their collective force.

The report identifies the blind spots each city faces:

Oslo is a wealthy city, but can struggle to execute on its vision.

Helsinki demonstrates world class capabilities in macro infrastructure and engineering, but must focus on the human dimension to attract global talent.

Stockholm remains an innovation flagship but risks stagnation through bureaucratic friction that inhibits entrepreneurialism.

Copenhagen shows that radical transformation is possible within a single generation yet faces a fragmented innovation culture and risks becoming complacent after decades of success.

In parallel, three shared priorities emerged from the discussions across the four capitals:

Together these approaches can accelerate delivery, improve risk sharing and strengthen the resilience of everyday urban life.

The report indicates a strong association between urban resilience and long-term economic performance. Cities that perform better on resilience indicators such as safety, liveability, and robust infrastructure experience nearly one percentage point higher annual real GDP growth.

Resilience is not a cost, rather it is a competitive advantage that helps de-risk the future, attract long term capital, and strengthen social cohesion.

Realising that potential will require us to move beyond parallel city strategies and towards deeper regional cooperation. One promising opportunity lies in the emerging Y shaped corridor linking Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Helsinki, and Hamburg. By strengthening cross border integration along this corridor, the Nordic capitals could convert trust into growth, resilience into economic return, and cooperation into global competitiveness.