Hong Kong has rounded off the top five every year since the index launched in 2010, only to be displaced by Beijing this year. Even in a year marked by relatively low levels of business activity, New York City’s momentum across all metrics enabled the city to maintain its number 1 position,” explained partner in Kearney’s Strategy & Top Line practice Andrés Mendoza Peña. It also shows that for those cities able to do so, global status has so far been self-reinforcing. “The consistency of these results highlights the wide range of positive attributes a city must have to reach the top of the Index, and the difficulty of building such a broad platform of strengths. This is the precise order for this year as well. Following steadily in third and fourth each year have been Paris and Tokyo. New York has sat at the helm of the GCI almost consistently over the years, interchanging occasionally with second-placed London. This measurement fits within the ‘human capital’ pillar.ĭespite a tweaked measurement strategy, certain cities continue their global domination this year. “As Covid-19 has shown, the well-being of residents, and access to cutting-edge medical knowledge and technologies, can make or break a city,” said Hales. The second – a nod to the global health crisis and its predictably long-term impact – is the number of medical universities in a city. This new lens fits within the ‘business activity’ dimension. “We can no longer consider a city global if it is not at the forefront of entrepreneurship and innovation,” explained Mike Hales, at partner at Kearney in its Operations practice.

One is the number of unicorn companies – private startups valued at over $1 billion – in a testament to the global wave of tech startups.

A few things have changed about the GCI this year, most notably the addition of two new metrics. Five dimensions form the basis of Kearney’s analysis: business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience and political engagement. Kearney has been ranking global cities every year for a decade now, judging their status as major global urban centres. Here are the 25 most global and vibrant cities in the world. Combining traditional metrics with some new ones that reflect modern realities, Kearney has produced the latest iteration of its Global Cities Index (GCI).

Best cities in the world global index