Global City Ranking Model
What are the World’s Most Important Cities?
Mid 2023 Rankings

The Global City Ranking Model scores each metropolitan area worldwide according to its relative importance—with “100.0” as the highest score on a 0–100 scale.

The model uses forty regularly updated data sources to calculate importance, with economic output and impact comprising the largest part of each city’s score:

Here are the world’s Top 180 cities, according to the Mid 2023 Model:

According to the Mid 2023 Model, New York is currently the world’s most important city—followed by Shanghai, Tokyo, London, and Beijing.

Meanwhile, here’s a closer look at the most important cities in the world’s Top 3 Regions: Northern America (i.e., the U.S. and Canada), Europe, and East and Southeast Asia.

Originally intended for cartographic use, the project began in 2007 and is currently in its 13th iteration.

Inspired by the Ranally City Rating System and the Chinese City Tier System, the ranking was born out of frustration with other city ranking lists, which too often focus on soft attributes like quality of life, political engagement, environmental factors, and brand—rather than actual importance and power.