2008 Foreign Policy Ranking

In October 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 "[t]he 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."

The rankings are based on the evaluation of 24 metrics in five areas: business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, and political engagement. The top thirty of the 60 cities ranked were:

 

Rank	City	Best category (position in that category)
1	New York City	Business Activity and Human Capital (1st)
2	London	Cultural Experience (1st)
3	Paris	Information Exchange (1st)
4	Tokyo	Business Activity (2nd)
5	Hong Kong	Business Activity and Human Capital (5th)
6	Los Angeles	Human Capital (4th)
7	Singapore	Business Activity (6th)
8	Chicago	Human Capital (3rd)
9	Seoul	Information Exchange (5th)
10	Toronto	Cultural Experience (4th)
11	Washington, D.C.	Political Engagement (1st)
12	Beijing	Political Engagement (7th)
13	Brussels	Information Exchange (2nd)
14	Madrid	Information Exchange (9th)
15	San Francisco	Human Capital (12th)
16	Sydney	Human Capital (8th)
17	Berlin	Cultural Experience (8th)
18	Vienna	Political Engagement (9th)
19	Moscow	Cultural Experience (6th)
20	Shanghai	Business Activity (8th)
21	Frankfurt	Business Activity (11th)
22	Bangkok	Political Engagement (13th)
23	Amsterdam	Business Activity (10th)
24	Stockholm	Information Exchange (13th)
25	Mexico City	Cultural Experience (9th)
26	Zürich	Information Exchange (8th)
27	Dubai	Information Exchange (14th)
28	Istanbul	Political Engagement (8th)
29	Boston	Human Capital (9th)
30	Rome	Cultural Experience (15th)

 

 

Source: EnWikipedia