All the "Most Important Cities" Rankings Combined

[HenryAlan]

Originally Posted by HtownLove

yeah, everything is not a competition. so when i say one city's economy is based on something doesn't mean that I am saying in that category that particular city is better than another.

Okay, but would you say that finance is a major component of Houston's economy? I can't see how it would be, just based on the overall size of Houston's GDP. If it were an important local factor, scale would make Houston a major financial center. So on that basis, it doesn't seem to fit in with what we should think about when considering Houston's noteworthy industries. When I think of Houston, I think of energy, shipping, medical research, aerospace, education. Finance is of course there, as are many other industries you'd expect in a diverse economy. But it just doesn't jump to mind for most of us as significant compared to what I've listed.

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by HenryAlan

When I think of Houston, I think of energy, shipping, medical research, aerospace, education.

Oh so you agree that Houston's economy is diverse and not just oil then?

To answer your question, Wikipedia seems to think so:

Banking and financial services are vital the region. Forty foreign governments maintain trade and commercial offices here and the city has 23 active foreign chambers of commerce and trade associations.Eleven foreign banks representing 12 nations operate in Houston and provide financial assistance to the international community. In 1997 Houston had offices of 84 subsidiaries of Japanese companies.

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by tmac9wr

I suppose I misunderstood what your point was.

the person I was responding to said that Houston economy was not diverse and basically based on oil and that if that was to drop of we would not have any economy.

Here are stats from City data:

By 2004 upstream energy's percentage was reduced to 31.4 percent while downstream energy increased to 17 percent and diversified industries nearly quadrupled to 51.6 percent.

Houston is also a world leader in the chemical industry, with nearly 40 percent of the nation's capacity for producing the basic chemicals that are used by downstream chemical operations.

Through more than a quarter century of manned space flight, Houston has played an important role in space exploration...

Financial services are a key component to Houston's economy. The finance/insurance/real estate sector represented 15.4 percent of the Houston region's gross area product in 2003.