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World’s top 10 cities by economic strength: New York is the world’s largest economic city
World's top 10 cities by economic strength in 2026 list: Oxford Economics’ 2026 Global Cities Index names New York the world’s strongest urban economy, highlighting American market dominance alongside London in the top 10.
New York is the world's largest economic city in the Oxford Economics Global Cities Index. (photo credit: unsplash)
World’s top 10 cities by economic strength: The Oxford Economics Global Cities Index has released its ranking of the largest cities in the world according to their economic strength. The index ranks 1000 cities across the world based on five major factors: Economics, Human Capital, Quality of Life, Environment and Governance.
The most significant factor among these is Economics which captures not just the size of a city’s economy, but also its stability, growth path, and equity of wealth distribution. The report was designed by combining different measures, rather than solely focusing on a single one that reflects the growth of the city’s economy. These measures incorporated GDP size, GDP growth, economic stability, GDP per capita, employment growth and economic diversity.
In the current ranking, New York bagged the top position in the Global Cities Index. Oxford Economics mentioned that New York is the largest metro economy in the world, nearly twice the size of the second-biggest cities (in terms of economy), namely Tokyo and Los Angeles. Even though the city has pretty stable long-term GDP dynamics, New York’s economic diversity is lower compared to others on the list, reflecting the massive role of its finance sector.
The study also noted that nine of the top 10 cities are in the US, with London being the only non-US city on the list. Los Angeles ranked No. 2 on the list with a broad economic base covering entertainment, tech and aerospace. This has led to a higher rate of GDP per person. San Jose was placed at third place with headquarters of firms like Apple, giving it the highest GDP per person of the 1000 cities ranked on the list.
Seattle, San Francisco, and Dallas were ranked at No. 4, 5, and 6 respectively. London was placed at No. 7 while Washington DC and Boston were placed at No. 8 and 9 respectively. Houston closed out the top 10 list. Meanwhile, Delhi was placed at #268 and Bengaluru on 311th place on the 1000 cities list.
| Rank | City |
| 1. | New York |
| 2. | Los Angeles |
| 3. | San Jose |
| 4. | Seattle |
| 5. | San Francisco |
| 6. | Dallas |
| 7. | London |
| 8. | Washington DC |
| 9. | Boston |
| 10. | Houston |
Source: oxfordeconomics.com
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