This is a big week for us here at CityMetric Towers. Break out the bunting; don the slightly too small paper hats – because, on Thursday 30 July, it’s our first birthday. What did you get us?

The New Statesman launched CityMetric with the goal of creating an urbanism magazine site that would take complicated and technical ideas from the world of city planning, and make them accessible to a mainstream audience. On 30 July 2014, CityMetric first opened its pages to the world, with this article explaining what we called “the urban revolution“: the fact that, for the first time in history, humanity was now a primarily urban species. 

Since then, we’ve published everything from data journalism to listicles, to 5,000-word essays on the relationship between the urban form and economic history.

We’ve discussed the vexed issue of how to protect affordable housing and creative spaces in cities with soaring property prices. We’ve debated the best way of providing wheelchair-accessible transport. We’ve closely followed Britain’s first tentative steps towards municipal devolution. And sometimes, just for a lark, we’ve compared cities by dropping maps on top of other maps.

And, for the most part, you lot have seemed to like it. The number of people following us on social media has been climbing steadily, while the number actually visiting the site is doubling roughly once every three months. 

Today, we are delighted to announce a new partner in the next stage of our development. The Centre for Cities is the UK’s leading urban think tank, the first port of call for anyone who seeks to understand and improve the economic performance of Britain’s cities. 

It’s also our new data partner. You’ll find a link to the Centre’s excellent cities data tool in the top bar of this website. We’ll be writing regular articles exploring and explaining the insights we discover using the tool, too.

We’ve enjoyed the last year; we hope you have, too. This time next year, with the support of the New Statesman, the Centre for Cities, and other partners yet unknown, we plan to be even bigger.