2023 World's Most Important Cities Ranked

[dimondpark]

Interesting.

The Global City Ranking Model scores each metropolitan area worldwide according to its relative importance—with “100.0” as the highest score on a 0–100 scale.

The model uses more than forty regularly updated data sources to calculate importance, with economic output and impact given the highest weight:

criteria:


>50.00--Global Giant
One of the World's 5 Most Important Cities:
100.0 New York
79.8 Shanghai
74.7 Tokyo
69.2 London
50.4 Beijing

25.0-49.9 Global City
A city of global importance, with outsized impact on the world:
48.2 Paris
44.4 Los Angeles
43.6 Seoul
38.9 Hong Kong
38.2 Singapore
37.9 San Francisco Bay Area
37.7 Shenzhen
35.8 Guangzhou-Foshan
32.5 Moscow
30.4 Chicago
27.1 Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto
27.1 Washington

12.5-25.9 Major City
A city of very high importance, with significance impact outside of it's country:
24.0 Mumbai
23.8 Delhi-New Delhi
23.5 Istanbul
22.7 Jakarta
21.9 Bangkok
21.7 Mexico City
21.5 Sao Paulo
21.0 Toronto
21.0 Taipei
20.9 Dubai
20.8 Ranstand/Amsterdam
20.1 Boston
18.2 Chengdu
19.0 Madrid
18.6 Berlin
18.0 Chonqing
17.4 Sydney
16.7 Dallas-Fort Worth
16.4 Hangzhou
16.0 Brussels
15.5 Houston
15.3 Atlanta
15.3 Kuala Lumpur
15.0 Wuhan
15.0 Buenos Aires
14.8 Manila
14.7 Milan
14.7 Miami
14.2 Philadelphia
14.0 Nanjing
13.6 Rhine-Ruhr-Cologne
13.3 Seattle
12.8 Barcelona
12.6 Tianjin
12.6 Melbourne
12.5 Rhine-Main/Frankfurt
12.5 Rome

6.3-12.4 Almost Major City
A city that's almost a "Major City" but slightly deficient in some regard.
12.2 Nagoya
11.6 Changzhutan/Changsha
11.1 Vienna
10.8 Munich
10.5 Johannesburg-Pretoria
10.5 Xi'an
10.3 Busan
10.0 Qingdao
9.8 Santiago
9.8 Stockholm
9.8 Montreal
9.7 Cairo
9.7 Zurich
9.5 Dublin
9.2 Zhengzhou
9.2 Riyadh
9.1 Ningbo
9.1 Abu Dhabi
8.9 Rio de Janeiro
8.7 Phoenix
8.6 Detroit
8.5 Athens
8.5 Lisbon
8.4 San Diego
8.3 Vancouver
8.3 Lima
8.3 Prague
8.2 Ho Chi Minh City
8.2 Denver
8.1 Dalian
8.1 Shenyang
8.1 Minneapolis-St Paul
8.1 Xiamen
8.0 Warsaw
8.0 Tehran
7.9 Hefei
7.8 Ankara
7.7 Bogota
7.7 Hamburg
7.4 Kolkata
7.4 Geneva
7.3 Tel Aviv
7.2 Budapest
6.9 Jinan
6.9 Dhaka
6.9 Fuzhou
6.7 Brasilia
6.6 Brisbane
6.3 Kuwait City

Rest of the list here:
https://www.justinobeirne.com/global-city-ranking-model

[SIGSEGV]

Note that your link is missing an l at the end


Pearl River Delta doing well on this list (rightfully so I suppose). Amsterdam seems like it maybe should be higher?

[SteveD]

US faring about how I would expect using these metrics.

NYC by itself in the top tier.

A plausible group of four in the next tier.

The ones you expect to be present in the 3rd tier.

[mhays]

Looks like plenty of blunt-object criteria, not nuanced as they could be. And some not really pertaining to "importance" at all. But hey my city does ok so what the hell.

The link only seems to go to a list of other topics. But one "blunt object" example might be listing the number of F500 HQs vs. the volume of F500 HQs, based on employment, market cap, revenues, whatever. That would still be blunt but less so.

[iheartthed]

It seems like a fair ranking to me.

[MolsonExport]

There will never be a perfect list but at least this one does not put Osaka and Guatemala City in the same category (GAWC)

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by mhays

Looks like plenty of blunt-object criteria, not nuanced as they could be. And some not really pertaining to "importance" at all. But hey my city does ok so what the hell.

The link only seems to go to a list of other topics. But one "blunt object" example might be listing the number of F500 HQs vs. the volume of F500 HQs, based on employment, market cap, revenues, whatever. That would still be blunt but less so.

With the F500 HQs I can see the rationale for using the quantity of them rather than size or other details. The HQ is where a lot of command power is based, whereas the other things are less clear cut. Like, market cap and revenues could be heavily based in the HQ city or be very spread out across the country or world. And with total employment, if they measured just the employment in that particular city it isn't clear why that makes the city more important than if the same number of people were employed by several companies or self employed. And if they meant total employment by the company anywhere, a lot of that may not even be in the city or contribute much to that city's economy or overall importance. Many large companies have multiple HQs with different regional and national HQs around the world.

A major justification given for corporate mergers and consolidations is that it saves a lot of money by eliminating duplicate leadership and administration. Which is a plus for the company but not so much for the city or cities the companies are based in since that savings means reduced corporate travel, fewer high earning execs, less need for high end office space, etc.

Overall I agree that some of the categories are questionable in terms of their relation to functional importance like the modern urban characteristics category. But all are things many people associate with importance to some degree and none are given overly high weighting. Importance after all isn't a clear, objective category like say, population size. What is important are things people place importance in. This isn't something we'll ever get perfect consensus on, but it seems like there's a decent mix of things people consider important or consider to be signifiers of importance. And as a result, the rankings are fairly close to what most would expect.

[MAC123]

Yeah I can agree on #1. Even besides being the Global Financial center it has a lot going for it.

The UN building is here, along with the dozens of Embassies and consulates that come with that. Political power unrivaled anywhere else in the US besides the Capitol.

There is the obvious size of the population, though that's not that big a factor on a list like this where lots of cities have larger pops. Still, it's pretty big.

Then there's the cultural influence. This is almost indescribable really. It's hard to quantify just how much influence NYC has on the rest of the country and world. (Though I guess a small example would be when you say New York, people think of the city not the state). But in terms of cultural output, Times Square, Broadway, the many many studios that are already here and more that are getting built (wildflowers for example), the many TV stations HQed here, etc etc.

The NYC boosters can be annoying, but it's hard not to see where they're coming from.


But besides NYC, I'd love to know the specifics on why London is above Paris? Along with some of the other rankings.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by MAC123

But besides NYC, I'd love to know the specifics on why London is above Paris? Along with some of the other rankings.

Paris usually seems to be slightly underperforming on these lists, and almost always lower than London. I'm not sure it makes sense. Paris has similar or greater population, wealth and corporate heft. Its cultural capital is possibly unsurpassed. It shouldn't be #1, but it should almost always be Top 5 in any comparative measure of global importance.

[mrnyc]

^ yep — brexit london out for paris.

otherwise, not a bad listicle for a change.

[iheartthed]

The grouping is arbitrary. Paris is #6 on the list. I'm not sure I'd put Paris ahead of London right now even post-Brexit. I don't think the EU has settled on a de facto capital now that London is out.

[Gantz]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Paris usually seems to be slightly underperforming on these lists, and almost always lower than London. I'm not sure it makes sense. Paris has similar or greater population, wealth and corporate heft. Its cultural capital is possibly unsurpassed. It shouldn't be #1, but it should almost always be Top 5 in any comparative measure of global importance.

Even post-Brexit, London is ahead when it comes to innovation and finance.
Seoul is also very underrated. While it has its drawbacks, this city will be moving up the ranks if it manages population growth.
I am surprised that Shanghai is over Tokyo. I have never been to Shanghai and that makes me want to visit.

[bilbao58]

Since the list is so heavily weighted toward economic factors, I fully expect Houston and DFW to flip places on the next list since ExxonMobil is currently moving its corporate HQ from DFW to a Houston suburb.

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by Gantz

Even post-Brexit, London is ahead when it comes to innovation and finance.

Being the world’s money-laundering capital doesn’t hurt, either.

This: https://youtu.be/gyk12Wf_TeQ

Or, for even more fun, this: https://youtu.be/np_ylvc8Zj8

[Quixote]

DC’s stature has risen considerably with all the regulatory mechanisms put in place in a post-9/11 and Global Recession world that is increasingly climate-conscious, information-rich, data-driven, privacy-concerned, automation-based, and innovation-focused. Not to mention the bipartisan shit show that now includes the Supreme Court.

The DC MSA has also recorded solid and steady growth, from 4.92 million in 2000 to 5.64 million in 2010 to 6.39 million in 2020. If those growth rates hold up, it’ll be around 7 million by the next decennial census.

All the major defense conglomerates are now headquartered in NoVA.

And for what DC lacks in higher education institutions, it sort of makes up for in think tanks and research institutes.

[sentinel]

I'm sorry, struggling to understand where this list is coming from Is this a list from an organization or institute, or did an individual make this?

Shanghai and Beijing above Tokyo? Even GDP measurements don't support that. And Moscow above Washington DC? Pretty dubious.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by sentinel

I'm sorry, struggling to understand where this list is coming from Is this a list from an organization or institute, or did an individual make this?

Shanghai and Beijing above Tokyo? Even GDP measurements don't support that. And Moscow above Washington DC? Pretty dubious.

it's some individual, yeah.

though it's the same individual who does detailed reviews of online maps. Not sure what his creds are...

[3rd&Brown]

I’m just happy Austin and Nashville aren’t on the list. Anywhere.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

I’m just happy Austin and Nashville aren’t on the list. Anywhere.

they are on the full list: https://www.justinobeirne.com/global-city-ranking-model

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

it's some individual, yeah.

though it's the same individual who does detailed reviews of online maps. Not sure what his creds are...

Figured, but thanks for confirming