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Against the background of economic and technological changes caused by the globalization and the integration process, cities in Europe face the challenge of combining competitiveness and sustainable urban development simultaneously. Very evidently, this challenge is likely to have an impact on issues of Urban Quality such as housing, economy, culture, social and environmental conditions. This contribution, however, does not deal with the leading European metropolises but with medium-sized cities and their perspectives for development. Even though the vast majority of the urban population lives in such cities, the main focus of urban research tends to be on the ‘global ’ metropolises. As a result, the challenges of medium-sized cities, which can be rather different, remain unexplored to a certain degree. Medium-sized cities, which have to cope with competition of the larger metropolises on corresponding issues, appear to be less well equipped in terms of critical mass, resources and organizing capacity. On the other hand, medium-sized cities may offer assets not available in larger cities. This paper emphasises the role city-rankings can play in identifying best practices of regional development strategies for medium-sized cities. The ‘tool ’ of ranking cities is explored profoundly, elaborated by a case study and recommendations for designing meaningful comparisons of medium-sized cities and for interpreting their results are provided. It is particularly emphasised that the ranking of cities should be part of a more general