Oxford Economics Global Cities Index 2025

The Oxford Economics Global Cities Index for 2025 is a comprehensive assessment of the world's largest thousand cities, aiming to empower businesses and governments to make informed decisions through a deeper understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing these cities. The index relies on a diverse set of indicators derived from global city forecasts and other qualitative data sets, providing a comprehensive overview of each city's strengths. This year, New York maintained its leading position, closely followed by London and Paris, affirming their status as global economic and human powerhouses. This article reviews the most prominent results and future outlook for global cities based on the Oxford Economics report. Leading Cities in the Index New York: The Economic Capital of the World New York tops the list of global cities for 2025 and is considered the economic capital of the United States and the world. The city is a global center for finance, technology, advertising, and media, which explains its leading position in the economic cities list. New York has the largest urban economy in the world, with its economy nearly double the size of the second-largest city (Los Angeles). Despite the dominance of its massive financial sector, which may reduce its economic diversity compared to other American cities, New York's GDP growth has historically been stable, and its future economic prospects are positive. London: The Global City Par Excellence London truly embodies the concept of a "global city," having cemented its position as a perpetually important center for business, science and technology, education, and the arts. London ranks eighth in the economic classification due to the size of its economy, which is the fourth largest in the world. London particularly stands out as a global leader in human capital, thanks to its numerous world-leading universities, diverse workforce, and many international company headquarters. Paris: A Center of Diplomacy, Culture, and Science Over centuries, Paris has emerged as one of the world's largest cities, paving its way as a leader in diplomacy, trade, science, culture, and culinary arts. Thanks to its economy, which heavily relies on services, Paris is now the fifth-largest city in the world by GDP and the second-largest in Europe. Its cultural heritage, along with its significant historical landmarks, has contributed to making it one of the world's most prominent tourist destinations, attracting millions of visitors annually. Global Trends and Future Outlook Trade tensions and deglobalization are causing significant headwinds to global economic growth, potentially leading to fundamental shifts in supply chains and the way countries conduct business with each other in the coming years. However, the world's leading cities have historically demonstrated high resilience, placing them in a better position to face current challenges. These cities are not only engines of the global economy but also centers of learning, innovation, culture, and decision-making that shape the future of our world. While traditional urban giants like New York, London, and Tokyo still exert immense influence on the world economy, the report expects the geography of global growth to shift significantly over the next 25 years, as cities in India and other parts of the developing world increase their contributions to the global economy. By 2050, the world's largest 1,000 cities will have half a billion more residents than today, representing a tremendous opportunity for these urban centers. This growth in population and jobs will fuel a significant rise in GDP, which will also benefit from a 50% increase in productivity by 2050. These productivity gains will drive income growth, and the report predicts that more than a quarter of the world's cities will see their average household incomes more than double in the next 25 years. City Classification and Archetypes Each city is unique in its structure, outlook, and history. However, in many cases, cities evolve along similar development paths, sharing characteristics, challenges, and opportunities with other cities around the world. To help classify these cities and their shared traits, Oxford Economics has created a typology of city archetypes to allow decision-makers to compare and monitor the performance of similar cities. These archetypes are defined using a range of metrics from all five categories of the Global Cities Index, with each archetype focusing on a different set of common traits. This classification of the world's major cities reveals some key trends for each group, identifying similarities and, equally importantly, differences between city types. For example, in the Economics and Human Capital categories, "Global Leaders" unsurprisingly emerge as the strongest performers, reflecting their economic prowess and abundance of educated and productive workers. Although "Global Leaders" excel in Quality of Life, they are outperformed by smaller "Cultural Capitals," which, while not as economically dominant, offer a higher quality of life for residents. "Sustainable Cities" achieve the highest scores in both the Environment and Governance categories, underscoring their commitment to environmental priorities and the robustness of their institutions. The Oxford Economics Global Cities Index assesses cities across five different categories to achieve a comprehensive comparison of locations: Economics Human Capital Quality of Life Governance The Oxford Economics Global Cities Index is a vital tool for understanding global urban dynamics and identifying future growth paths. Through its comprehensive analysis, the index provides valuable insights for decision-makers across various sectors, enabling them to take strategic steps towards a prosperous and sustainable urban future. [Source: Oxford Economics]