Strange data. San Francisco #27?? A metro area with 7 million people that includes all of Silicon Valley, the East Bay and the city itself? How come Washington, with a smaller population, be above SF? Or Houston, or Dallas. Good quiz, it's just the data can be a little suspicious.
The DC metro area is huge. Depending on who is doing the measuring, it is bigger than San Francisco, Houston and Dallas. It is also home to the federal government, the payroll of which dwarfs the tech industry.
going by MSA, Dallas and Houston are 4th and 5th respectively. By CSA, Washington is 4th, then Dallas and Houston. I think Washington metro has a valid argument to be 4th MSA, since Baltimore is excluded in the MSA stat. Driving from Washington to Baltimore is just about identical distance as Dallas to Fort Worth.
I like how this has turned into an argument about the 5 biggest cities in America. I was always taught this: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix.
Funny. I have always thought NYC, LA, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia as the top 5. Maybe depends on what the list was when you were in elementary school? Past the top 3, they do change over time.
Having far more people than London or Los Angeles helps. As does being the capital of one of the world's largest economies at the heart of one of the major global regions for trade and industry.
For the record, Wikipedia (citing Korean government sources) lists Seoul as the world's fourth largest metropolitan area. WorldAtlas.com lists it as the fifth largest. South Korea's per capita GDP of $35,000 would certainly imply, given Seoul's enormous population, that it should be one of the world's largest city economies.
The GDP of the entire country of Nigeria is only 500 billion or so. Seeing as the Lagos area has about 10% of the population of the country, it's likely that Lagos is not close to making the list.
I got all of those. Busan used to be the headquarters for global megacorporation Samsung (I think they've since moved to Seoul), and it is still a major industrial center.
Considering that it's the hub of the gargantuan and once-hegemonic American auto industry, the fact that it is now in last place on a top 50 list is a bit of a shame and indicative of how far the city has fallen.
I missed some obvious ones (got every Chinese city on here except for Beijing). I am skeptical of some of these figures, though. Is Brussels really that large? Belgium's per capita GDP is only 80% of Australia's and Brussels' metro population is 1.8 million vs 4.9 million for Sydney. I expect Sydney is disproportionately wealthy compared to Australia and to a greater extent than the same may apply to Brussels vs Belgium as a whole. Given this it seems rather remarkable that Brussels has a larger economy than Sydney. Also, what's happening with Germany? German cities much smaller than Berlin make it on, but the capital itself doesn't. Is it really that much poorer than the rest of Germany? Berlin has about twice Hamburg's population - is Hamburg more than twice as wealthy?
Most definitions of urban areas are liberal. In the U.S., Dallas and Forth Worth, San Jose to Oakland, Washington to Baltimore, Los Angeles to pretty much anywhere in its region are all around that distance. Hell, I grew up in a town 35 miles from Atlanta and people would still say they were "from Atlanta."
^ true. A city is a really loose definition and can have many different outcomes depending on how you look at it. For example, an easy way would be the city's metropolitan area, but many other places start to merge in, Such as Washington - Baltimore or Dallas - Forth Worth, and then you could just keep adding in towns and villages that straddle the area. Another way would be the actual city, but then London would have a population of around 7,000, as the London metropolitan area is made up of boroughs that are actually UK counties, with only the city of London being an actuall 'city'. It's difficult to have 1 straight idea of a city's population, because different sources use different definitions, and it ends up with big debates, as everyone has different ideas from looking at different sources. I think metropolitan area is the best way, but it still does have problems. Woah I wrote loads :D
Exactly. It’s why nobody can ever agree on what the 4th and 5th largest US cities are. Is it Houston and Phily? Dallas and Houston? Houston and Phoenix? Dallas and Phily? DC and Dallas? and the list goes on and on.
Why is Amsterdam/Rotterdam count as only 1 city when it's two different ones! The Netherlands isn't that big and they are "only" about 50km apart from each other but that doesn't mean it can be count as 1!
No. Unfortunately the Brookings institute decided not to share their data when they released their 2018 report. The report actually kind of sucks because they only show changes, not the actual values.
In SND (Suzhou New District)!! I now live interchangeably between two houses - one a flat, and the other with a front and back garden (part of a flat as well, but with much fewer stories). I live in the flat during weekdays when I have to go to school (because my school bus only travels a certain route), and in the house during the weekends and other non-schooldays.
Never knew Shanghai, Wuxi, and Suzhou were different metropolitan regions. When I just looked on Google maps it seemed fishy, but flipping to satellite mode revealed clear suburban walls separating the three.
These figures combines financial economy and real economy (goods and services produced). I don't think London and New York would rank high without financial economies. One have to bear in mind that many banks have their headquarters in London city for secrecy reasons (ability to avoid taxes in tax havens in Cayman islands etc.) and New York because proximity for Wallstreet. Big part of this money goes to speculative derivatives, which are more "productive" in financial sense than investing in real economies in UK or US. In contrast in China there are trillions of dollars invested in building infrastructure and services: high speed railroads, cities, hospitals, schools etc. I have traveled almost 60 countries in world including exotic places like North Korea and lived in China for years but nothing is as horrible as roads and rail roads in UK and USA. They are like 21 years ago in China, when I was there for the first time. Even Japan's high speed rail looks ancient compared to Chinese.
Great quiz, thanks!