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New York City (top) and London (bottom) are the only two cities ranked in the Alpha ++ category by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Both cities are considered leading financial, commercial and cultural centers.

A global city, also known as a power city, world city, alpha city, or world center, is a city that serves as a primary node in the global economic network. The concept originates from geography and urban studies, based on the thesis that globalization has created a hierarchy of strategic geographic locations with varying degrees of influence over finance, trade, and culture worldwide.[1] The global city represents the most complex and significant hub within the international system, characterized by links binding it to other cities that have direct, tangible effects on global socioeconomic affairs.[2]

The criteria of a global city vary depending on the source.[3] Common features include a high degree of urban development, a large population, the presence of major multinational companies, a significant and globalized financial sector, a well-developed and internationally linked transportation infrastructure, local or national economic dominance, high quality educational and research institutions, and a globally influential output of ideas, innovations, or cultural products. Quintessential examples, based on most indices and research, include New York City, London, Paris, and Tokyo.

Origin and terminology

The term 'global city' was popularized by sociologist Saskia Sassen in her 1991 book, The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo.[4] Before then, other terms were used for urban centers with roughly the same features. The term 'world city', meaning a city heavily involved in global trade, appeared in a May 1886 description of Liverpool, by The Illustrated London News;[5] British sociologist and geographer Patrick Geddes used the term in 1915.[6] The term 'megacity' entered common use in the late 19th or early 20th century, the earliest known example being a publication by the University of Texas in 1904.[7] In the 21st century, the terms are usually focused on a city's financial power and high technology infrastructure.[8][9]

Criteria

Manhattan, the core area of New York City, an Alpha++ global city, where there are several characteristic elements of global cities[10] like worldwide influential economic (New York Stock Exchange) and cultural (Broadway) centers, headquarters of international political organizations (UN headquarters), world renowned museums (the Met Museum, MOMA, Guggenheim Museum), and worldwide-known landmarks (Times Square, Empire State Building, Central Park)

Competing groups have devised competing means to classify and rank world cities and to distinguish them from other cities.[6] Although there is a consensus on the leading world cities,[11] the chosen criteria affect which other cities are included.[6] Selection criteria may be based on a yardstick value (e.g., if the producer-service sector is the largest sector then city X is a world city)[6] or on an imminent determination (if the producer-service sector of city X is greater than the combined producer-service sectors of N other cities then city X is a world city.)[6] Although criteria are variable and fluid, typical characteristics of world cities include:[12]

General rankings

Global city rankings are numerous.[15] New York City, London, Tokyo, and Paris are the most commonly mentioned.[16][17]

GaWC study

Top global cities per the GaWC 2020 rankings. Shown are "Alpha ++" cities (marked in gold) and "Alpha +" cities (marked in red).[18]


Jon Beaverstock, Richard G. Smith, and Peter J. Taylor established the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC). They rank world cities by their connectivity through four "advanced producer services": accountancy, advertising, banking/finance, and law.[11] The GaWC inventory identifies three levels of global cities and several sub-ranks,[19] although the authors caution that "concern for city rankings operates against the spirit of the GaWC project" [emphasis in original].[20] The 2004 rankings added several new indicators while continuing to rank city-economics more heavily than political and cultural factors. The 2008 version of the list, similar to the 1998 version, is sorted into categories of Alpha world cities (with four sub-categories), Beta world cities (three sub-categories), Gamma world cities (three sub-categories), and cities with High sufficiency and Sufficiency presence. The cities in the top three classifications in the 2022 edition are:[21]

Alpha ++

Alpha +

Alpha

Global Cities Index (Kearney)

In 2008, the American journal Foreign Policy, working with the consulting firm A.T. Kearney and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, published a ranking of global cities based on consultation with Saskia Sassen, Witold Rybczynski, and others.[22] Foreign Policy noted that "the world's biggest, most interconnected cities help set global agendas, weather transnational dangers, and serve as the hubs of global integration. They are the engines of growth for their countries and the gateways to the resources of their regions."[23] The ranking is based on 27 metrics across five dimensions: business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, and political engagement.[24] Since 2015, it has been published with a separate index, the Global Cities Outlook, which is a projection of a city's potential based on rate of change in 13 indicators across four dimensions: personal well-being, economics, innovation, and governance. The top ranked cities in 2023 are:[25]

  1. United States New York City
  2. United Kingdom London
  3. France Paris
  4. Japan Tokyo
  5. China Beijing
  6. Belgium Brussels
  7. Singapore Singapore
  8. United States Los Angeles
  9. Australia Melbourne
  10. Hong Kong Hong Kong

Global Cities Index (Oxford Economics)

Advisory firm Oxford Economics released its Global Cities Index in 2024, ranking the world's largest 1,000 cities based on 27 indicators across five categories (economics, human capital, quality of life, environment, and governance) with more weight on economic factors. The top ranked cities in 2024 are:[26]

  1. United States New York City
  2. United Kingdom London
  3. United States San Jose
  4. Japan Tokyo
  5. France Paris
  6. United States Seattle
  7. United States Los Angeles
  8. United States San Francisco
  9. Australia Melbourne
  10. Switzerland Zurich

Global Economic Power Index

The Global Economic Power Index reflecting three dimensions of economic power was introduced in 2012.[27] In 2015, the second Global Economic Power Index, a meta list compiled by Richard Florida, was published by The Atlantic (distinct from a namesake list[28] published by the Martin Prosperity Institute), with city composite rank based on five other lists.[28][29] The top global cities in 2015 are:

  1. United States New York City
  2. United Kingdom London
  3. Japan Tokyo
  4. Hong Kong Hong Kong
  5. France Paris
  6. Singapore Singapore
  7. United States Los Angeles
  8. South Korea Seoul
  9. Austria Vienna
  10. Sweden Stockholm & Canada Toronto

Global Power City Index

The Tokyo-based Institute for Urban Strategies at The Mori Memorial Foundation, issued a study of global cities in 2008. They are ranked in six categories: economy, research and development, cultural interaction, livability, environment, and accessibility, with 70 individual indicators among them. The top ten world cities are also ranked by subjective categories, including manager, researcher, artist, visitor and resident.[30][31] The top 10 cities in 2023 are:[30]

  1. United Kingdom London
  2. United States New York City
  3. Japan Tokyo
  4. France Paris
  5. Singapore Singapore
  6. Netherlands Amsterdam
  7. South Korea Seoul
  8. United Arab Emirates Dubai
  9. Australia Melbourne
  10. Germany Berlin

Financial rankings

Global Financial Centres Index

Strength as a financial center has become one of the pre-eminent indicators of a global city's ranking. As of 2024,[32] the cities representing the top ten financial centers according to the Global Financial Centres Index by the think tank China Development Institute and analytics firm Z/Yen are:[33]

  1. United States New York City
  2. United Kingdom London
  3. Singapore Singapore
  4. Hong Kong Hong Kong
  5. United States San Francisco
  6. China Shanghai
  7. Switzerland Geneva
  8. United States Los Angeles
  9. United States Chicago
  10. South Korea Seoul

The Wealth Report

Estate agent Knight Frank LLP and the Citi Private Bank publish The Wealth Report, which includes a "Global Cities Survey", evaluating the most important cities to high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs, having over $25 million of investable assets each). Criteria are economic activity, political power, knowledge and influence, and quality of life.[34][35] The most important cities to UHNWIs in 2022 are:[36]

  1. United Kingdom London
  1. France Paris & United States New York City
  1. United States Los Angeles
  1. Japan Tokyo
  1. United States Chicago
  1. Singapore Singapore
  1. Hong Kong Hong Kong
  1. Canada Toronto
  1. China Beijing

Social rankings

The World's Most Talked About Cities

London-based built environment communications firm ING Media ranked 250 cities by total online mentions across social media and online news. A fifth of digital mentions were for Tokyo, New York City, London, and Paris, identifying these as the world's super brands.[37] Top cities in the 2019 edition are:[38]

  1. Japan Tokyo
  2. United States New York City
  3. United Kingdom London
  4. France Paris
  5. Spain Madrid
  6. United Arab Emirates Dubai
  7. Italy Rome
  8. Spain Barcelona
  9. South Korea Seoul
  10. Japan Osaka

See also

References

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  2. ^ Sassen, Saskia (July 2001). "The global city: strategic site/new frontier". Seminar Magazine. No. 503. Archived from the original on 18 October 2006.
  3. ^ "global city". Britannica. Archived from the original on 20 October 2022. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  4. ^ Sassen, Saskia. The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. 1991. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-07063-6. Archived 16 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ^ Belchem, John (18 December 2009). "The Empire in One City? Liverpool's Inconvenient Imperial Past". Reviews in History. Archived from the original on 23 June 2012. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
  6. ^ a b c d e Doel, M., & Hubbard, P., (2002), "Taking World Cities Literally: Marketing the City in a Global Space of flows", City, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 351–368. Subscription required.
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  11. ^ a b GaWC Research Bulletin 5 Archived 8 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine, GaWC, Loughborough University, 28 July 1999
  12. ^ Pashley, Rosemary. "HSC Geography". Pascal Press, 2000, p.164
  13. ^ J.V. Beaverstock, World City Networks 'From Below' Archived 8 March 2006 at the Wayback Machine, GaWC, Loughborough University, 29 September 2010
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  16. ^ "Struggling Giants". University of Minnesota Press. Archived from the original on 17 January 2021. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
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  26. ^ Millson, Alex (21 May 2024). "New York, London Top Oxford Economics Ranking of 1,000 Global Cities". Bloomberg. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  27. ^ "What Is the World's Most Economically Powerful City?". The Atlantic. 10 March 2015. Archived from the original on 10 March 2015.
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