Paris is still the most compelling urban symphony on the planet – at once historic and progressive, elegant and gritty, intimate and global. The 2024 Olympic spotlight revealed not just athletic excellence, but a city that has remade itself on its own terms: slowed down for walking, calm for biking, lush for breathing and resilient for learning.
The transformation is as palpable as it is measurable. The city-wide 30 kph (18.6 mph) speed limit, once controversial, now feels inevitable. Parisians navigate more than 600 miles of bike lanes as of mid-2025, with cycling rates nearly doubling in two years. What were once car-dominated thoroughfares have become extended terraces and silent school zones – part of nearly 250 acres of new pedestrian space since 2020, with another 250 planned by 2030. The Plan Vélo’s second phase, launching later this year, promises bike maintenance hubs and tourism liaisons across all 20 arrondissements.
Infrastructure is following suit. Phase 1 of the Grand Paris Express opened in mid-2024, delivering new stations including new suburban lines and an extended Line 14, bringing Seine-Saint-Denis within 40 minutes of Orly Airport. Lines 16 and 17 will begin service by 2027, creating one of Europe’s densest transit networks. Metro redesigns – slimmed trains and extended operating hours – blend with this expansion to make the system feel both more accessible and decidedly more futuristic.
The housing equation, long Paris’s Achilles heel, shows signs of recalibration. The 2024 land credit reform streamlined permitting across the inner ring, enabling delivery of 4,500 new affordable and mixed-income units by mid-2025, particularly in developments like Chapelle International and Fleury-Marcadet. Real estate prices remain more tempered than London’s, with a modest 2%-3% rise this spring, thanks to zoning reforms and social-housing commitments.
Famed Parisian retail has long mirrored the city’s refined instincts, and is keeping up high-heeled step for step these days, too. The renovated Galeries Lafayette Champs-Élysées anchors the avenue’s revival with its rotating design galleries hosting new brand pop-ups.
Cultural infrastructure moves with characteristic ambition. The Louvre’s $936-million “New Renaissance” renovation, approved in early 2025, will open in 2031 with the Mona Lisa in her own luminous chamber and a reimagined Seine-side entrance, anchoring a century-long vision. Next year brings the Musée d’Orsay’s new 13,000-square-foot wing, housing Impressionist narratives in new light. The Bourse de Commerce welcomes major retrospectives while the Giacometti Museum and School will open in the former Gare des Invalides train station in 2028. Expect the city’s Top 3 Museums ranking to challenge Tokyo’s top spot soon.
Long-neglected airport infrastructure (ranked #4 globally) is also getting overdue attention, with the planned 2027 launch of the CDG Express, a high-speed train connecting the airport to central Paris. High-speed rail connections are also multiplying, with Milan overnight plans for 2027.
The investment community has taken notice. Paris ranks second only to London in European prosperity indices, with in-country FDI reaching more than $15B in 2024 (with the Paris region grabbing a healthy chunk), concentrated in AI, cleantech and quantum research. The France 2030 initiative has created over 30 unicorns since 2021, most of them Paris-based. Station F expanded this year to support 1,000 incubated companies as well. It’s no wonder Paris ranks #4 in our overall Prosperity index, led by its #8 ranking in our Large Companies subcategory and #11 for Business Ecosystem. The city also ranks #7 globally in the 2025 World’s Wealthiest Cities Report (not one of ours), with 22 billionaires who call the city home.
Despite the Parisian economic miracle, income and opportunity disparities persist as entrenched challenges. Northeastern districts maintain unemployment rates near 12%, cratering the city’s rankings for Unemployment Rate (#272) and Labor Force Participation (#159). The city is trying to spread the wealth through 5,000 new training positions in technology and hospitality distributed across Zones Franches Urbaines, with converted warehouses becoming Youth Employment Hubs offering hospitality skills and digital job training.
Tourism, after all, has also never been more lucrative. After the Olympic-fueled 2024 surge, 2025 is anticipated to see 51 million visitors with strengthening spend patterns. New culinary destinations like Le Grand Café within the newly reopened Grand Palais complement evening-opened museums that draw locals and visitors alike, and help the city rank #11 in our Restaurants subcategory. The city now hosts 123 Michelin-starred restaurants, including Sushi Yoshinaga, a new two-star Japanese restaurant, located halfway between the Opéra and Paris’ Japanese Quarter, while sustainable-star recognition reinforces Paris’s gastronomic leadership.