48 most powerful cities in the world

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A global ranking of the most powerful cities in the world, according to the Mori Memorial Foundation’s latest Global Power City Index.

Most powerful cities in the world map
The 48 major cities across the world ranked by the Global Power City Index (GPCI)

The Global Power City Index (GPCI) assesses and ranks 48 major global cities according to their “magnetism,” or their “comprehensive power to attract people, capital, and enterprises from around the world”.

The report is published by the Mori Memorial Foundation’s Institute for Urban Strategies, a research body established by Mori Building, a leading urban developer in Tokyo, Japan.

Since 2008, the annual GPCI report has ranked 40 or more major cities by measuring 70 indicators across six functions:

  • Economy
  • Research and Development
  • Cultural Interaction
  • Livability
  • Environment
  • Accessibility

The three top-ranked cities maintained their positions from last year. However, comparing the fluctuation in various scores, London (1) and New York (2) were seen to pull away from Tokyo and Paris in third and fourth place respectively.

London maintained its position at the top of the rankings for the ninth consecutive year. Apart from the Environment function, London was placed in the top 10 for all functions.

The city of London
London was ranked first for the ninth year in a row (Shutterstock)

New York was second and performed particularly well in the Economy function. In third place, Tokyo continued to perform across all functions while also improving its score in the Environment and Accessibility functions.

Paris, in fourth position, fell back somewhat, particularly in the Livability and Accessibility functions.

Singapore, in fifth place, reaffirmed its credentials as a stable city, achieving improved rankings in all areas except Cultural Interaction.

Function-specific rankings

A total of 70 indicators are used in the GPCI with average scores for each indicator created and then combined to calculate a city’s function-specific rankings, which are then totalled to determine its overall ranking.

Economy

  1. New York
  2. London
  3. Beijing
  4. Tokyo
  5. Singapore
  6. Hong Kong
  7. Dublin
  8. San Francisco
  9. Zurich
  10. Washington DC

Research & Development

  1. New York
  2. London
  3. Tokyo
  4. Los Angeles
  5. Boston
  6. Seoul
  7. Chicago
  8. San Francisco
  9. Hong Kong
  10. Singapore

Cultural Interaction

  1. London
  2. New York
  3. Paris
  4. Tokyo
  5. Singapore
  6. Dubai
  7. Bangkok
  8. Berlin
  9. Moscow
  10. Istanbul

Livability

  1. Amsterdam
  2. Madrid
  3. Berlin
  4. Paris
  5. Barcelona
  6. Toronto
  7. Vancouver
  8. Vienna
  9. Buenos Aires
  10. London

Environment

  1. Stockholm
  2. Copenhagen
  3. Vienna
  4. Berlin
  5. Vancouver
  6. Sydney
  7. Zurich
  8. Geneva
  9. Helsinki
  10. Melbourne

Accessibility

  1. London
  2. Paris
  3. Shanghai
  4. New York
  5. Amsterdam
  6. Frankfurt
  7. Tokyo
  8. Singapore
  9. Dubai
  10. Hong Kong
Tokyo is one of the most powerful cities in the world
Tokyo was ranked third (Shutterstock)

Most powerful cities in the world – complete ranking

The table below ranks the most powerful cities in the world using the Mori Memorial Foundation’s latest Global Power City Index.

The highest possible total score is 2,600 points.

RankCityScore
1London, UK1,661.10
2New York, USA1,514.90
3Tokyo, Japan1,386.50
4Paris, France1,325.40
5Singapore, Singapore1,262.10
6Amsterdam, Netherlands1,187.40
7Berlin, Germany1,185.40
8Seoul, South Korea1,163.10
9Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR1,149.70
10Shanghai, China1,108.90
11Sydney, Australia1,101.70
12Los Angeles, USA1,099.00
13Madrid, Spain1,097.00
14Melbourne, Australia1,092.00
15Beijing, China1,091.90
16Vienna, Austria1,085.00
17Dubai, UAE1,084.90
18Toronto, Canada1,082.10
19Copenhagen, Denmark1,080.50
20Zurich, Switzerland1,073.50
21Barcelona, Spain1,072.30
22Stockholm, Sweden1,050.00
23Frankfurt, Germany1,043.00
24San Francisco, USA1,040.10
25Chicago, USA1,013.70
26Vancouver1,007.60
27Boston, USA1,005.20
28Brussels, Belgium993.40
29Geneva, Switzerland964.90
30Moscow, Russia963.00
31Dublin, Ireland962.30
32Helsinki, Finland958.70
33Osaka, Japan954.00
34Istanbul, Turkey951.10
35Bangkok, Thailand945.90
36Washington DC, USA936.30
37Taipei, Taiwan934.10
38Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia927.00
39Milan, Italy922.00
40Buenos Aires, Argentina861.20
41Tel Aviv, Israel856.70
42Sao Paulo, Brazil846.40
43Fukuoka, Japan834.00
44Mexico City, Mexico788.90
45Jakarta, Indonesia737.30
46Cairo, Egypt657.40
47Johannesburg, South Africa618.10
48Mumbai, India612.60

Source: Global Power City Index, Mori Memorial Foundation