/ Best big city in this year's municipality survey
Once again, Kristiansand municipality comes out best among the big cities in this year's municipal barometer organized by Kommunal Rapport.
The survey compares 152 key figures. Primary and secondary education and health care are the most important, followed by child protection, kindergarten and economy. These sectors account for 70 percent of the barometer overall. Kristiansand comes in 34th place overall among the country's municipalities. This is down 18 places compared to last year.
Kommunal Rapport writes that the key figures are far better than the economic conditions would indicate, and very good compared to the rest of the country. As last year, Kristiansand is also this year the city that comes highest on the list. The next closest city is Trondheim (48). The other big cities have these rankings: Bergen (50), Drammen (58), Oslo (141) and Stavanger (189). Mandal municipality came top among the country's municipalities, Songdalen is ranked 12th, and Søgne is ranked 31st.
The barometer consists of 12 different sectors, with different weights. Primary and secondary education and health care are the most important, followed by child welfare, kindergarten and the economy. These sectors account for 70% of the total barometer. A preliminary report has now been published. The final report will be ready later this year.
Kommunal Rapport writes that the municipalities in Vest-Agder are set to come out best in this year's survey. Mandal, Audnedal, Songdalen, Søgne and Kristiansand are among the municipalities in or close to the top tier at the moment. Last year, Vest-Agder also had the best municipalities overall, the newspaper writes.
- It is gratifying to see that Southern Norway is mentioned in this way. It seems that Southern Norway as a region, and we as a large municipality in the region, are doing well. Now we will look at possible explanations for the areas where we have moved up or down significantly compared to last year. I note both that we climb from place 73 to 11th place in child welfare, and that we fall from place 150 to 311 in nursing and care, says councilor Ragnar Evensen.
Written by: Jon Sverre Karterud, Kristiansand Municipality
