
The biggest issue in gauging the economic power of cities until recently has been the lack of good, comparable and systematic data. But population is a crude measure of economic strength, which is more a function of productivity, technology and human capital or skills. In another couple of decades that will increase to roughly three quarters. It's well known than more than half the world's population now lives in cities and metro areas. The most common way to rank cities is by their populations. Paris, LA, DC and Boston also show strength.


The former tops the ranks of the most economically powerful cities in Asia, though Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai also rank highly. London is second, followed by Tokyo and Chicago. Mapping the new global power structure See full coverageīut in contest for one metro to rule them all, New York takes the crown as the most economically powerful metropolitan, according to my assessment of five recent comprehensive rankings of global cities.
