Global city

A global city (also called world city or sometimes alpha city or world center) is a Specialized City deemed to be an important node point in the global economic system. The concept comes from geography and urban studies and rests on the idea that globalization can be understood as largely created, facilitated and enacted in strategic geographic locales according to a hierarchy of importance to the operation of the global system of finance and trade.

The most complex of these entities is the "global city", whereby the linkages binding a city have a direct and tangible effect on global affairs through socio-economic means.^[1] The terminology of "global city", as opposed to megacity, was popularized (not coined or invented) by the sociologist Saskia Sassen in reference to her 1991 work, "The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo"^[2] though the term "world city" to describe cities which control a disproportionate amount of global business dates to at least May 1886, to a description of Liverpool by the Illustrated London News.^[3] Patrick Geddes also used the term "world city" later in 1915.^[4] Cities can fall from such categorization, as in the case of cities that have become less cosmopolitan and less internationally renowned in the current era, e.g., Kaliningrad, Russia; Thessaloniki, Greece; and Alexandria, Egypt.

Global City or world city status is seen as beneficial, and because of this many groups have tried to classify and rank which cities are seen as 'world cities' or 'non-world cities'.^[4] Although there is a consensus upon leading world cities,^[5] the criteria upon which a classification is made can affect which other cities are included.^[4] The criteria for identification tend either to be based on a "yardstick value" ("e.g., if the producer-service sector is the largest sector, then city X is a world city")^[4] or on an "imminent determination" ("if the producer-service sector of city X is greater than the producer-service sector of N other cities, then city X is a world city").^[4]

• Corporate headquarters for multinational corporations, international financial institutions, law firms, conglomerates, and stock exchanges that have influence over the world economy.
• Significant financial capacity/output: city/regional^[6] GDP^[7]
• Stock market indices^[8]/market capitalisation
• Financial service provision;^[9] e.g., banks, accountancy
• Costs of living^[10] personal wealth; e.g., number of billionaires^[11]

• Active influence on and participation in international events and world affairs; for example, Washington, London, Paris, Tokyo, Berlin, Rome, Moscow, or Beijing are major capitals of influential nations or unions.
• Hosting headquarters for international organizations (World Bank), NATO headquarters
• A large proper, population of the municipality (the centre of a metropolitan area, typically several million) or agglomeration
• Diverse demographic constituencies^[12] based on various indicators:^[13] population, habitat,^[14] mobility,^[15] and urbanisation^[16]
• Quality of life standards^[17] or city development^[18]
• Expatriate communities

• International, first-name familiarity. For example, New York City is commonly referred to as just "New York" without needing to specify that it is in the state of New York or even the United States.
• Renowned cultural institutions (often with high endowments), such as notable museums and galleries, notable opera, orchestras, notable film centres and theatre centres. A lively cultural scene, including film festivals (such as the Toronto International Film Festival), premieres, a thriving music scene, nightlife, an opera company, art galleries, street performers, and annual parades.
• Several influential media outlets with an international reach, such as the BBC, Reuters, The New York Times, or Agence France-Presse.
• A strong sporting community, including major sports facilities, home teams in major league sports, and the ability and historical experience to host international sporting events such as the Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup, or Grand Slam tennis events.^[19]
• Educational institutions; e.g., universities,^[20] international student attendance,^[21] research facilities
• Sites of pilgrimage for world religions (for example, Mecca, Jerusalem or Rome)
• Cities containing World Heritage Sites of historical and cultural significance^[22]
• Tourism throughput
• City as site or subject in Arts and Media, television, film, video games, music, literature, magazines, articles, documentary
• City as an often repeated historic reference, showcase, or symbolic actions

• An advanced transportation system that includes several highways and/or a large mass transit network offering multiple modes of transportation (rapid transit, light rail, regional rail, ferry, or bus), for example the London Underground.
• Extensive and popular^[23] mass transit systems, prominent rail usage,^[24] road vehicle usage,^[25] major seaports^[26]
• A major international airport that serves as an established hub for several international airlines, for example, London. Airports with significant passenger traffic and international passengers traffic^[27] or cargo movements.
• An advanced communications infrastructure on which modern trans-national corporations rely, such as fiberoptics, Wi-Fi networks, cellular phone services, and other high-speed lines of communications. For example, Seoul and Tokyo are known as the digital and technology capitals of the world.
• Health facilities; e.g., hospitals, medical laboratories
• Prominent skylines/skyscrapers (for example Chicago or Hong Kong)^[28]
• Cities' telephone and mail services, airport flights-range, traffic congestion, availability of water, train facilities, nearby parks, hospitals, libraries, police stations, etc.

The first attempt to define, categorize, and rank global cities using 'relational data' was made in 1998 by Jon Beaverstock, Richard G Smith and Peter Taylor, who all worked at that time at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom. Together they established the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. A roster of world cities was outlined in the GaWC Research Bulletin 5 and ranked cities based on their connectivity through four "advanced producer services": accountancy, advertising, banking/finance, and law.^[5] The GaWC inventory identifies three levels of global cities and several sub-ranks. This roster generally denotes cities in which there are offices of certain multinational corporations providing financial and consulting services rather than denoting other cultural, political, and economic centres.

The 2004 rankings acknowledged several new indicators while continuing to rank city economics more heavily than political or cultural factors. The 2008 roster, similar to the 1998 version, is sorted into categories of "Alpha" world cities (with four sub-categories), "Beta" world cities (three sub-categories), "Gamma" world cities (three sub-categories), and additional cities with "High sufficiency" or "Sufficiency" world city presence.

The 2008 roster of leading Alpha, Beta and Gamma world cities is reproduced below; see the source for the complete roster:^[29][30]

• Alpha++ world cities:
  • London, New York

• Alpha+ world cities:
  • Hong Kong, Paris, Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Milan, Shanghai, Beijing

• Alpha world cities:
  • Madrid, Moscow, Seoul, Toronto, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur, Chicago

• Alpha− world cities:
  • Warsaw, São Paulo, Zurich, Amsterdam, Mexico City, Jakarta, Dublin, Bangkok, Taipei, Istanbul, Rome, Lisbon, Frankfurt, Stockholm, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Athens, Caracas, Los Angeles, Auckland, Santiago

• Beta+ world cities:
  • Washington, Melbourne, Johannesburg, Atlanta, Barcelona, San Francisco, Manila, Bogotá, Tel Aviv, New Delhi, Dubai, Bucharest

• Beta world cities:
  • Oslo, Berlin, Helsinki, Geneva, Copenhagen, Riyadh, Hamburg, Cairo, Luxembourg, Bangalore, Dallas, Kuwait, Boston

• Beta− world cities:
  • Munich, Jeddah, Miami, Lima, Kiev, Houston, Guangzhou, Beirut, Karachi, Düsseldorf, Sofia, Montevideo, Nicosia, Rio de Janeiro, Ho Chi Minh City

• Gamma+ world cities:
  • Montreal, Nairobi, Bratislava, Panama City, Chennai, Brisbane, Casablanca, Denver, Quito, Stuttgart, Vancouver, Zagreb, Manama, Guatemala City, Cape Town, San José, Minneapolis, Santo Domingo, Seattle

• Gamma world cities:
  • Ljubljana, Shenzhen, Perth, Kolkata, Guadalajara, Antwerp, Philadelphia, Rotterdam, Amman, Portland, Lagos

• Gamma− world cities:
  • Detroit, Manchester, Wellington, Riga, Guayaquil, Edinburgh, Porto, San Salvador, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Port Louis, San Diego, Islamabad, Birmingham, Doha, Calgary, Almaty, Columbus,

In 2008, the American journal Foreign Policy, in conjunction with consulting firm A.T. Kearney and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, published a ranking of global cities, based on consultation with Saskia Sassen, Witold Rybczynski, and others. Foreign Policy noted that "the world’s biggest, most interconnected cities help set global agendas, weather transnational dangers, and serve as the hubs of global integration. They are the engines of growth for their countries and the gateways to the resources of their regions."^[31]

In 2010 the index was updated, and the top thirty ranked were:^[32][33]

Rank	City	Score
1	New York City	6.22
2	London	5.86
3	Tokyo	5.42
4	Paris	5.35
5	Hong Kong	4.14
6	Chicago	3.94
7	Los Angeles	3.90
8	Singapore	3.45
9	Sydney	3.44
10	Seoul	3.40
11	Brussels	3.29
12	San Francisco	3.26
13	Washington, D.C.	3.25
14	Toronto	3.13
15	Beijing	3.12
16	Berlin	3.03
17	Madrid	3.02
18	Vienna	2.96
19	Boston	2.78
20	Frankfurt am Main	2.78
20	Shanghai	2.78
22	Buenos Aires	2.73
23	Stockholm	2.71
24	Zurich	2.68
25	Moscow	2.61
26	Barcelona	2.57
27	Dubai	2.56
28	Rome	2.56
29	Amsterdam	2.54
30	Mexico City	2.41

The Institute for Urban Strategies at The Mori Memorial Foundation in Tokyo, Japan issued a comprehensive study of global cities in 2009. The ranking is based on six overall categories, "Economy", "Research & Development", "Cultural Interaction", "Livability", "Ecology & Natural Environment", and "Accessibility", with 69 individual indicators among them.^[34] This Japanese ranking also breaks down top ten world cities ranked in subjective categories such as "manager, researcher, artist, visitor and resident."

Rank	City	Score	Best category (position)
1	New York City	330.4	Economy (1.) Research & Development (1.)
2	London	322.3	Cultural Interaction (1.)
3	Paris	317.8	Livability (1.) Accessibility (1.)
4	Tokyo	305.6	Economy (2.) Research & Development (2.)
5	Singapore	274.4	Economy (5.) Cultural Interaction (5.)
6	Berlin	259.3	Livability (2.)
7	Vienna	255.1	Ecology & Natural Environment (3.)
8	Amsterdam	250.5	Accessibility (3.)
9	Zurich	242.5	Ecology & Natural Environment (2.)
10	Hong Kong	242.5	Economy (4.)
11	Madrid	242.5	Ecology & Natural Environment (7.) Accessibility (7.)
12	Seoul	242.1	Research & Development (4.)
13	Los Angeles	240.0	Research & Development (5.)
14	Sydney	237.3	Ecology & Natural Environment (9.)
15	Toronto	234.6	Livability (5.)
16	Frankfurt am Main	232.9	Accessibility (5.)
17	Copenhagen	231.7	Economy (9.) Livability (9.)
18	Brussels	229.9	Livability (8.)
19	Geneva	229.7	Ecology & Natural Environment (1.)
20	Boston	226.2	Research & Development(6.)

In 2010 the London based consultant firm Knight Frank LLP together with the Citibank published a survey of world cities.^[35][36] The Wealth Report 2010, which includes the World City Survey, assesses four parameters — economic activity, political power, knowledge and influence and quality of life. The list aimed to rank the world's most influential cities. New York tops the list in Ecomomic activity, political power and knowledge and Paris tops it in quality of life. London and Paris get the same aggregate ranking of 149, making them de facto world's 2nd and 3rd most prominent cities.^[37]

Rank	City	Best category	Score
1	New York	Economic activity	151
2	London	Economic activity	149
3	Paris	Quality of life	149
4	Tokyo	Economic activity	144
5	Los Angeles	Knowledge and influence	122
6	Brussels	Political power	121
7	Singapore	Economic activity	119
8	Berlin	Quality of life	113
9	Beijing	Political power	113
10	Toronto	Quality of life	112
11	Chicago	Knowledge and influence	111
12	Washington, D.C.	Political power	111
13	Seoul	Economic activity	103
14	Hong Kong	Knowledge and influence	96
15	Frankfurt	Quality of life	96
16	Sydney	Knowledge and influence	92
17	San Francisco	Quality of life	90
18	Bangkok	Political power	83
19	Shanghai	Economic activity	83
20	Zurich	Quality of life	79

Rank	Population of city (proper)	Population of metropolitan area[38]	Foreign born population[39]	Expatriate cost of living[10]	Metro systems by annual passenger ridership	Metro systems by total route length	Annual airport traffic by passenger[40]	Number of billionaires (U.S. dollars)[41]	Gross Metropolitan Product at total PPPs[42]
1	Mumbai	Tokyo	Toronto	Tokyo	Tokyo	Shanghai	London	New York City	Tokyo
2	Shanghai	Seoul	New York City	Osaka	Moscow	London	New York City	London	New York City
3	Karachi	Mexico City	Hong Kong	Moscow	Seoul	New York City	Tokyo	Moscow	Los Angeles
4	Delhi	New York City	Los Angeles	Geneva	New York City	Berlin	Atlanta	Hong Kong	Chicago
5	Istanbul	Mumbai	Miami	Hong Kong	Paris	Seoul	Chicago	Los Angeles	Paris
6	São Paulo	Jakarta	London	Zurich	Beijing	Tokyo	Paris	Dallas	London
7	Moscow	São Paulo	Chicago	Copenhagen	Mexico City	Moscow	Los Angeles	Istanbul	Osaka
8	Seoul	Delhi	Sydney	New York City	Hong Kong	Madrid	Dallas	San Francisco	Mexico City
9	Beijing	Osaka	San Francisco	Beijing	Shanghai	Beijing	Frankfurt	Chicago, Mumbai, São Paulo, Tokyo	Philadelphia
10	Mexico City	Shanghai	Moscow	Singapore	London	Paris	Beijing	n/a	Washington, D.C.

• Financial centre
• Metropolis
• Megalopolis (city type)
• Specialized City
• Primate city
• Ecumenopolis

• Repository of Links Relating to Urban Places
• World Cities article by Jennifer Curtis of Charles Sturt University
• The World-System’s City System: A Research Agenda by Jeffrey Kentor and Michael Timberlake of the University of Utah and David Smith of University of California, Irvine
• The State of the World's Cities, 2001, UN Human Settlements Programme
• "U.S. Cities in the 'World City Network'", by Peter J. Taylor and Robert E. Lang, February 2005 (Full Report in PDF)