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D.C. getting dropped is the biggest ?? for me, below a number of less deserving cities in the Alpha category. Also means it's below Boston which I'm sure will trigger a few on the forum.
A few interesting additions have shown up in the Sufficiency index that weren't there previously, including a handful of Japanese cities such as Sendai, Kobe, some cities in Oceania such as Suva and Port Moresby, and some more smaller regional cities such as Novosibirsk, Honolulu and Saskatoon. I feel like it's a bit of a coming out party for these places when they eek into the botom end of this list.
Boston makes sense- leader in Education, Healthcare and Innovation. Globally interconnected with a top 5 financial services industry. No question about that, why it wasn't Alpha prior to this is bizzare. Local companies are leading the COVID Vaccine trials, etc... And is the fastest growing office market this year, ahead of NY, LA, Seattle, AF, DC etc..
However, DC dropping doesn't make any sense, yes. It's up there on the same tier as SF and Boston.. not with Houston. I don't get that at all
GAWC has been a trash ranking for much of the past decade. I would just ignore them and move on.
Here are the Top 100 by region. It's pretty easy to see the bias. Europe has 31% of the Top 100 and 34% of the Top 50, far higher than their share of the economy.
Australia has 4 cities in the Top 100, while the U.S. has 13. So the U.S. has 3x more representation with 13x more people and an economy nearly 16x bigger.
East Asia (1.6 billion) + North America (0.6 billion) have the same representation as Europe (0.7 billion), even though East Asia + North America has 3x the population and 2x the economic might.
And the rankings are laughable. San Francisco and Seattle, two of the wealthiest, most global, most powerful tech hubs in the globe are ranked #38 and #92, behind European capitals that barely crack 1 million like Dublin (#35), Luxembourg (#39), Prague (#49), Vienna (#33), etc.
The San Francisco Bay Area has a bigger economy than Amsterdam, Dublin, Luxembourg, Stockholm, Vienna, Warsaw and Zurich COMBINED, yet trails each of them.
Washington is #51, behind "juggernauts" like Bengaluru, Lisbon and Manila.
How the mighty have fallen...
RANKINGS
(first # is regional ranking, second # is global ranking)
Africa and Middle East
1. Abu Dhabi (#9/78)
2. Beirut (#8/72)
3. Cairo (#7/71)
4. Cape Town (#11/89)
5. Casablanca (#10/80)
6. Doha (#6/64)
7. Dubai (#1/7)
8. Istanbul (#3/30)
9. Johannesburg (#2/27)
10. Manama (#13/93)
11. Nairobi (#12/91)
12. Riyadh (#4/47)
13. Tel Aviv (#5/61)
Asia, East
1. Beijing (#3/6)
2. Chengdu (#9/59)
3. Chongqing (#13/96)
4. Guangzhou (#6/34)
5. Hangzhou (#12/90)
6. Hong Kong (#1/3)
7. Nanjing (#11/87)
8. Seoul (#5/26)
9. Shanghai (#2/5)
10. Shenzhen (#8/46)
11. Taipei (#7/36)
12. Tianjin (#10/77)
13. Tokyo (#4/9)
14. Wuhan (#14/98)
Asia, South
1. Bengaluru (#3/50)
2. Chennai (#4/85)
3. Delhi (#2/42)
4. Karachi (#5/94)
5. Mumbai (#1/13)
Asia, Southeast
1. Bangkok (#4/31)
2. Jakarta (#3/23)
3. Hanoi (#7/86)
4. Ho Chi Minh City (#6/74)
5. Kuala Lumpur (#2/20)
6. Manila (#5/45)
7. Singapore (#1/4)
Europe
1. Amsterdam (#3/14)
2. Athens (#26/75)
3. Barcelona (#22/62)
4. Berlin (#20/58)
5. Brussels (#8/24)
6. Bucharest (#25/68)
7. Budapest (#23/63)
8. Copenhagen (#24/66)
9. Dublin (#13/35)
10. Dusseldorf (#21/60)
11. Frankfurt (#5/16)
12. Geneva (#31/100)
13. Hamburg (#19/56)
14. Helsinki (#29/84)
15. Kiev (#27/81)
16. Lisbon (#16/48)
17. London (#1/1)
18. Luxembourg (#14/39)
19. Madrid (#6/21)
20. Manchester (#30/99)
21. Milan (#4/15)
22. Moscow (#7/22)
23. Munich (#15/41)
24. Oslo (#28/83)
25. Paris (#2/8)
26. Prague (#17/49)
27. Rome (#18/55)
28. Stockholm (#11/32)
29. Vienna (#12/33)
30. Warsaw (#9/25)
31. Zurich (#10/28)
North America
1. Atlanta (#13/67)
2. Boston (#8/44)
3. Chicago (#5/19)
4. Dallas (#10/52)
5. Denver (#15/76)
6. Houston (#12/57)
7. Los Angeles (#2/11)
8. Mexico City (#4/17)
9. Miami (#11/54)
10. Montreal (#7/40)
11. New York (#1/2)
12. Panama City (#18/97)
13. Philadelphia (#16/88)
14. San Francisco (#6/38)
15. Seattle (#17/92)
16. Toronto (#3/12)
17. Vancouver (#14/69)
18. Washington (#9/51)
South America
1. Bogota (#4/53)
2. Buenos Aires (#2/37)
3. Lima (#5/65)
4. Montevideo (#6/82)
5. Rio de Janeiro (#7/95)
6. Santiago (#3/43)
7. Sao Paulo (#1/18)
GAWC has been a trash ranking for much of the past decade. I would just ignore them and move on.
Here are the Top 100 by region. It's pretty easy to see the bias. Europe has 31% of the Top 100 and 34% of the Top 50, far higher than their share of the economy.
Australia has 4 cities in the Top 100, while the U.S. has 13. So the U.S. has 3x more representation with 13x more people and an economy nearly 16x bigger.
East Asia (1.6 billion) + North America (0.6 billion) have the same representation as Europe (0.7 billion), even though East Asia + North America has 3x the population and 2x the economic might.
And the rankings are laughable. San Francisco and Seattle, two of the wealthiest, most global, most powerful tech hubs in the globe are ranked #38 and #92, behind European capitals that barely crack 1 million like Dublin (#35), Luxembourg (#39), Prague (#49), Vienna (#33), etc.
The San Francisco Bay Area has a bigger economy than Amsterdam, Dublin, Luxembourg, Stockholm, Vienna, Warsaw and Zurich COMBINED, yet trails each of them.
Washington is #51, behind "juggernauts" like Bengaluru, Lisbon and Manila.
How the mighty have fallen...
RANKINGS
(first # is regional ranking, second # is global ranking)
Africa and Middle East
1. Abu Dhabi (#9/78)
2. Beirut (#8/72)
3. Cairo (#7/71)
4. Cape Town (#11/89)
5. Casablanca (#10/80)
6. Doha (#6/64)
7. Dubai (#1/7)
8. Istanbul (#3/30)
9. Johannesburg (#2/27)
10. Manama (#13/93)
11. Nairobi (#12/91)
12. Riyadh (#4/47)
13. Tel Aviv (#5/61)
Asia, East
1. Beijing (#3/6)
2. Chengdu (#9/59)
3. Chongqing (#13/96)
4. Guangzhou (#6/34)
5. Hangzhou (#12/90)
6. Hong Kong (#1/3)
7. Nanjing (#11/87)
8. Seoul (#5/26)
9. Shanghai (#2/5)
10. Shenzhen (#8/46)
11. Taipei (#7/36)
12. Tianjin (#10/77)
13. Tokyo (#4/9)
14. Wuhan (#14/98)
Asia, South
1. Bengaluru (#3/50)
2. Chennai (#4/85)
3. Delhi (#2/42)
4. Karachi (#5/94)
5. Mumbai (#1/13)
Asia, Southeast
1. Bangkok (#4/31)
2. Jakarta (#3/23)
3. Hanoi (#7/86)
4. Ho Chi Minh City (#6/74)
5. Kuala Lumpur (#2/20)
6. Manila (#5/45)
7. Singapore (#1/4)
Europe
1. Amsterdam (#3/14)
2. Athens (#26/75)
3. Barcelona (#22/62)
4. Berlin (#20/58)
5. Brussels (#8/24)
6. Bucharest (#25/68)
7. Budapest (#23/63)
8. Copenhagen (#24/66)
9. Dublin (#13/35)
10. Dusseldorf (#21/60)
11. Frankfurt (#5/16)
12. Geneva (#31/100)
13. Hamburg (#19/56)
14. Helsinki (#29/84)
15. Kiev (#27/81)
16. Lisbon (#16/48)
17. London (#1/1)
18. Luxembourg (#14/39)
19. Madrid (#6/21)
20. Manchester (#30/99)
21. Milan (#4/15)
22. Moscow (#7/22)
23. Munich (#15/41)
24. Oslo (#28/83)
25. Paris (#2/8)
26. Prague (#17/49)
27. Rome (#18/55)
28. Stockholm (#11/32)
29. Vienna (#12/33)
30. Warsaw (#9/25)
31. Zurich (#10/28)
North America
1. Atlanta (#13/67)
2. Boston (#8/44)
3. Chicago (#5/19)
4. Dallas (#10/52)
5. Denver (#15/76)
6. Houston (#12/57)
7. Los Angeles (#2/11)
8. Mexico City (#4/17)
9. Miami (#11/54)
10. Montreal (#7/40)
11. New York (#1/2)
12. Panama City (#18/97)
13. Philadelphia (#16/88)
14. San Francisco (#6/38)
15. Seattle (#17/92)
16. Toronto (#3/12)
17. Vancouver (#14/69)
18. Washington (#9/51)
South America
1. Bogota (#4/53)
2. Buenos Aires (#2/37)
3. Lima (#5/65)
4. Montevideo (#6/82)
5. Rio de Janeiro (#7/95)
6. Santiago (#3/43)
7. Sao Paulo (#1/18)
Thanks for your intuitive list! I also tabulated the countries with at least 2 cities entering the top 100.
Countries with at least 2 cities entering the Top 100 in the GaWC 2020 rankings
13 - United States
11 - China
5 - Germany
4 - Australia / India
3 - Canada
2 - United Kingdom / United Arab Emirates / Italy / Brazil / Spain / South Africa / Switzerland / Vietnam
What is so unacceptable to me about the ranking is that Japan doesn’t have a 2nd city in the top 100. Osaka’s GDP is gigantic and yet it is ranked lower than Manama and Montevideo? Crazy! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_GDP
Japan did get a notable number of additional cities finally listed on the (expanded) 2020 list. In 2018 it only had Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka when the list goes down to having the likes of Des Moines, Madison and Halifax. Busan wasn't on the 2018 list anywhere either which is odd considering Korea's considerable economic and cultural clout.
I've still not been able to wrap my had around how Luxembourg City is an Alpha- city on the same level as San Francisco, Guangzhou and Seoul, the parameters must heavily favor it.
If you look at the Gawc criteria it speaks volumes and is more to with corporate globilisation than how good cities are to live and work in.
"Results are derived from the activities of 175 leading firms providing advanced producer services across 707 cities worldwide (i.e. the input is 175 x 707 = 123,725 pieces of information). The results should be interpreted as indicating the importance of cities as nodes in the world city network (i.e. enabling corporate globalization)."
If you look at the Gawc criteria it speaks volumes and is more to with corporate globilisation than how good cities are to live and work in.
"Results are derived from the activities of 175 leading firms providing advanced producer services across 707 cities worldwide (i.e. the input is 175 x 707 = 123,725 pieces of information). The results should be interpreted as indicating the importance of cities as nodes in the world city network (i.e. enabling corporate globalization)."
Define a piece of information, a bit/byte? If each firm answered fifty questions on each city, that would be a minimum of 6M+ and probably*a lot more.
They also say that culture & politics play a large role in the rankings.....
Define a piece of information, a bit/byte? If each firm answered fifty questions on each city, that would be a minimum of 6M+ and probably*a lot more.
They also say that culture & politics play a large role in the rankings.....
I have never read anything about culture, and the quote is from the website in relation to the rankings.
The website doesn't define information and talks about connectivity and globalisation, which are not always the best measures of a city.
I thought it was pretty obvious that Th e list is based on economic connectivity to London. The list has only been like that for years, I don’t think it measures how important a city is, it just measures how connected it is to the global economy and for the central node I’m pretty sure they use London.
I thought it was pretty obvious that Th e list is based on economic connectivity to London. The list has only been like that for years, I don’t think it measures how important a city is, it just measures how connected it is to the global economy and for the central node I’m pretty sure they use London.
Right, and by default of London being such a large and global node, the list, while flawed, does seem to roughly correlate with contemporary importance of the city to a decent extent. I think it's not a bad list as a basis for the broader question of a city's importance, but with some need for some adjustments.
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