New York, London Top New Ranking Of 1,000 Global Cities

Oxford Economics on Tuesday released its inaugural Global Cities Index, which it calls a “comprehensive evaluation of the world’s 1,000 largest urban economies.”

The economic forecaster crunched the numbers for 27 indicators to determine that New York, London and San Jose, California, are the world’s top cities, in a list whose first 50 places were dominated by the US and Europe. Aside from Tokyo, in fourth place, Asia’s next showing was Seoul in 41st position and Singapore in 42nd.

Australian cities fared better, with Melbourne in ninth place, Sydney in the 16th spot and Perth in 23rd.

The Index was compiled using five broad categories — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment, and governance — with weighting placing most emphasis on economic factors such as GDP and employment growth.

“Our Global Cities Index provides a consistent framework for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the largest 1,000 cities across the world, and when coupled with our forecasts, it enables organizations and policymakers to make more informed strategic decisions,” said Mark Britton, director of city services at Oxford Economics, based in Oxford, England.

New York City “has the largest economy of any city in the world by far,” Oxford Economics said, along with stable growth, allowing it to dominate the Economics category. London took the Human Capital category because of its wealth of top universities and global corporate headquarters, the report said. Grenoble, France, offers the best quality of life due to a lack of income inequality and the number of cultural offerings per capita. The two leaders ranked well down the list for their quality of life, with New York at 278th and London at 292nd.

These were the top five cities in each of the five categories:

Economics (including GDP size, growth and economic diversity) : 

1. New York, US
2. Los Angeles, US
3. San Jose, US
4. Seattle, US
5. San Francisco, US

Human Capital (including educational attainment, corporate headquarters and population growth):

1. London, UK
2. Tokyo, Japan
3. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
4. New York, US
5. Seoul, South Korea

Quality of Life (including life expectancy, income per person and recreation & cultural sites):

1. Grenoble, France
2. Canberra, Australia
3. Bern, Switzerland
4. Bergen, Norway
5. Basel, Switzerland

Environment (including air quality, natural disasters and temperature anomalies):

1. Suva, Fiji
2. Fortaleza, Brazil
3. San Juan, Puerto Rico
4. Natal, Brazil
5. Wellington, New Zealand

Governance (scores are calculated at a national level so countries are shown to represent the major cities, with indicators including institutions, political stability and civil liberties):

1. New Zealand
2. Denmark
3. Finland
4. Norway
5. Sweden

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