Global Cities Quiz

Wuhan certainly deserves a place in there.

Biggest surprises for me was the absence of Rome, Berlin, Washington DC, Geneva and Tel Aviv. Particularly surprised by Rome, as I'd have thought the presence of the Pope would give them a bit of a bump!

On the flip side, Dubai is too high for a city with zero cultural output (I'd swap them with Sao Paulo), not sure that Melbourne is more influential than any of my missing 5, same perhaps for Boston (even with their universities), Dublin, Prague and Warsaw.

Still, it's a provocative list which is always a good thing!

I wonder if the Australian ones get a bit of a time zone bonus - especially Sydney, first major stock exchange to open

The list is baffling at least.

As Mexican, the fact that Querétaro is a Gamma- city, and the fourth of Mexico, is truly worthy a "WTF?". I know it has grown, but not that much.

Seriously, if you ask any Mexican "Which cities are the most economically important cities beyond the usual suspects (Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara)?", I'm pretty sure they're gonna list 5-10 cities before Querétaro.

QM, I think they went easy with Brussels and Luxembourg for holding several EU institutions. Although, by that logic, Strasbourg should also be a Global City (it only hit "High Sufficiency" level).

Perhaps Brussels got its place because it's often use as a synonym of "European Union" (like during Brexit, where "negotiations between London and Brussels" had place). And Luxembourg got its place because their main crop is money.

Also, yeah: they should've chosen Sydney or Melbourne as Alpha, but not both.

I love how we can always count on QM to mix in a little Belgian trash talk. :-)

Before anyone criticising why one city is in the list and another city is not, it's worthwhile to note the methodology used by GaWC. The list depends on interconnectivity and reliance of a city in relation to other global cities e.g. it's counting the number of international flights, bilateral trade, number of embassies/consulates and international institutions etc. Therefore some major cities such as Washington and Osaka don't make the list because they are dwarfed by their neighbouring cities such as New York and Tokyo. Also this list favours some small capitals, e.g. Prague is deemed the most significant city economically and culturally for the Czech, while big cities like Houston is relatively less important in the English speaking world.

Wow no Berlin, Rome, Rio de Janeiro, Washington DC..

I'm not sure why Quizmaster singles out Australia's cities for demotion, though I'll agree Luxembourg seems like a strange inclusion and I think certain tax haven factors are skewing things in its favour. But both Sydney and Melbourne are major regional corporate and financial services hubs. Unlike the US where companies have far more choices in terms of major metropolitan centres, there aren't many globally connected, English-speaking and sufficiently large cities to choose from for operations in Asia-Pacific. Sydney and Melbourne's relative isolation from any similarly large developed metropolises gives them an edge in global importance over slightly larger US centres like Dallas, for example. Plus, on a per capita basis Australia isn't unique in Alpha cities. I'd say in terms of international commerce, population within national borders matters less than the characteristics of an individual city.

Some cities I think should be added are Rotterdam (the largest port in Europe and in the same metro area as The Hague) and a lot of African cities such as Addis Ababa, Cairo, Lagos, and Durban. But of course, that's just my opinion and I'm sure that the GaWC guys probably put a whole lot of research into this :)

Got 46 first try, little disappointed though after seeing which ones I missed (Mumbai, Johannesburg, Luxembourg, Stockholm). Should have gotten them all. Tried Oslo but no Stockholm, got both the other Benelux capitals etc...

Someone fill me in. Why is Brussels terrible?

This list is much better than the last one, but it definitely isn't perfect. My main problem with it is having Boston up here but not cities such as Seattle, Washington DC, or Atlanta (at the very least). Also, just because Luxembourg is one of the capitals of the EU, I don't really think that's reason enough to be on the list IMO. However, I'm glad that it didn't just include a bunch of European cities like the last one lol

I'm from Boston, but why is it on here compared to cities like Dallas, Seattle, Phoenix. Maybe its the Universities or hospital/biotech? Regardless, its a much smaller city than most of them on this list.

Why does the list not have Berlin?

Crazy that Luxembourg city, Brussels and Dublin is up there, but not economic/ cultural giants Osaka (bigger GDP than London), Guangzhou, Rome, Barcelona.

Could there be some sort of description for what an "alpha" city is?

i agree with the majority of this list

Suggestion - add in to the description what this quiz is. A link to the wiki page or a small explanation of the classifications?

I forgot the city that I live in: Manila :)

If these are in alphabetical order, then I think Bangalore should come before Bangkok. I had this space at the end between Bangkok and Boston, and I thought of Bangalore, but it didn't fit; or so I thought.

Still baffled that Rome, Athens & Berlin are not on there.