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Rankings: Top 25 global cities of 2011

Citi Private Bank offers its 2011 Wealth Report, ranking the top 25 global cities of 2011.
Written by Andrew Nusca, Contributor

The dominance of Western cities is being challenged by up-and-coming centers in Brazil, Russia, India and China, according to a new study.

The Knight Frank Global Cities Survey, published by Citi Private Bank, monitors "city-level power shifts" by assessing global markets for investment opportunities and influence on business leaders worldwide.

This year’s survey, the fourth, shows major movement in the study's "Economic Activity" category, with 14 cities slipping down the rankings and 16 rising up.

Author Liam Bailey writes:

The ongoing West-to-East shift in economic might is highlighted by the fact that eight of the 13 jumps in this area were by Asian cities, led by Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur. But the West is not without its successes. Munich’s rise in this category points to the new confidence in Germany – its star has been rising strongly during the Euro crisis.

In the "Political Power" category, North America dominates, with San Francisco and Toronto leading the charge (but a strong showing from Singapore nonetheless). Meanwhile, "Quality of Life" boosts in Sydney, Zurich and even London demonstrate positive infrastructure investment.

But most interesting is the survey's "Knowledge and Influence" ranking, with significant volatility. Bailey writes that it may be "an indication of the level of competition between cities that are seeking to exert power through investment in knowledge industries," including Boston, Munich, Milan, Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro. (New York and London remain tops, however.)

Here's the list of the top 25 global cities, according to the Citi index:

  1. New York
  2. London
  3. Paris
  4. Tokyo
  5. Brussels
  6. Los Angeles
  7. Singapore
  8. Beijing
  9. Toronto
  10. Berlin
  11. Chicago
  12. Washington, D.C.
  13. Seoul
  14. Frankfurt
  15. Sydney
  16. San Francisco
  17. Hong Kong
  18. Shanghai
  19. Mexico City
  20. Bangkok
  21. Moscow
  22. Zurich
  23. Munich
  24. Taipei
  25. Sao Paulo

The rest, in descending order: Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Milan, Boston, Miami, Cairo, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Tel Aviv, Bogota, Rio de Janeiro, New Delhi, Mumbai, Jakarta and Johannesburg.

The survey also offered Top 10 breakouts of each category.

Economic Activity

  1. New York
  2. London
  3. Tokyo
  4. Paris
  5. Shanghai
  6. Singapore
  7. Hong Kong
  8. Seoul
  9. Beijing
  10. Los Angeles

How it's measured: output, income per head, financial and capital market activity, market share, number of international corporate headquarters.

Political Power

  1. Washington, D.C.
  2. New York
  3. Brussels
  4. Beijing
  5. London
  6. Paris
  7. Tokyo
  8. Cairo
  9. Istanbul
  10. Mexico City

How it's measured: number of NGO and political organization headquarters, embassies and think tanks.

Quality of Life

  1. Paris
  2. Berlin
  3. Toronto
  4. Frankfurt
  5. London
  6. Zurich
  7. Tokyo
  8. Munich
  9. New York
  10. Los Angeles

How it's measured: assessing personal and political freedom, censorship, personal security, crime, political stability, health facilities, public services and transport, culture and liesure, climate, quality of environment.

Knowledge and Influence

  1. New York
  2. London
  3. Tokyo
  4. Paris
  5. Hong Kong
  6. Chicago
  7. Los Angeles
  8. Singapore
  9. Sydney
  10. Washington D.C.

How it's measured: number and ranking of educational facilities, number of news media organizations, international market share of media.

The survey was full of different rankings, so I broke them up into separate posts for your perusal:

Bailey sums up Knight Frank's findings thusly: "Tried-and-tested markets with security of infrastructure and political and legal stability will outperform in the longterm. No market is immune from a crisis, but these tend to have a depth of demand that creates a true liquid investment."

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com

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