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Global Cities on a World Map

Name the world's "alpha global cities" according to the Globalization and World Cities Study Group (2012).
Quiz by relessness
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Last updated: October 24, 2020
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First submittedOctober 21, 2016
Times taken79,438
Average score91.7%
Rating4.95
4:00
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Alpha++
London
New York City
Alpha+
Beijing
Dubai
Hong Kong
Paris
Alpha+
Shanghai
Singapore
Tokyo
Alpha
Amsterdam
Brussels
Chicago
Frankfurt
Alpha
Jakarta
Kuala Lumpur
Los Angeles
Madrid
Alpha
Mexico City
Milan
Moscow
Mumbai
Alpha
São Paulo
Sydney
Toronto
+18
Level 77
Oct 21, 2016
Easy :)
+8
Level 58
Feb 26, 2017
cool but too easy. may want to increase the time... i finished with 1:52 left
+4
Level 70
Aug 20, 2019
I finished with 2:23
+2
Level 75
Oct 25, 2020
That's funny. I finished with 2:52
+2
Level 70
Oct 25, 2020
3'14"
+1
Level 59
Nov 22, 2020
2:25 left
+1
Level 45
Dec 26, 2020
2:28
+2
Level 59
Dec 27, 2020
2:31 with spending roughly 30 seconds not realising I have left out rio lol
+6
Level 75
Dec 28, 2020
Rio?
+1
Level 59
Apr 27, 2023
Rio de Janeiro
+1
Level 60
Apr 27, 2023
I believe AlexThirkell's point is that there is no Rio de Janeiro on here.
+1
Level 29
Dec 29, 2020
2:26
+1
Level 57
Mar 2, 2021
I finished with 2:18
+1
Level 48
Dec 28, 2021
@Szatan, Sao Paulo was the alpha city in Brazil
+1
Level 67
Jan 9, 2022
I finished with 2:30 left
+1
Level 50
Aug 4, 2022
increase? why would you want to increase it if it’s easy
+6
Level 31
Dec 26, 2020
Why is Milan more Alpha than Rome? And Kuala Lumpur? What about Athens or Vienna or something.
+12
Level 40
Dec 26, 2020
Milan is the financial and economic capital of Italy, while Rome is the political capital. It is also the third richest urban area in Europe in terms of GDP, after London and Paris.
+21
Level 64
Dec 26, 2020
If you think Athens is a major hub of finance and enterprise you've been reading history from 2000 years ago more than news from the last 20 years.

KL is an out-and-out metropolis, Athens isn't.

+8
Level 24
Dec 30, 2020
Sounds like you're stuck in ancient history. Neither Rome, Athens, nor Vienna are on the same level as KL.
+6
Level 79
Mar 7, 2023
You forgot Alexandria and Sparta!
+4
Level 59
Apr 27, 2023
Where is Troy....
+2
Level 76
Oct 21, 2016
nice!
+1
Level 81
Oct 23, 2016
Wonderful quiz!
+4
Level 92
Oct 24, 2016
Got to the end, and was missing one city... hiding in the Great Lakes, I had to zoom in to see it.
+3
Level 75
Oct 24, 2016
Nice! May want to decrease the time - I went through at a comfortable pace and still had 2:42 left...
+9
Level 84
Oct 24, 2016
Frankfurt > Berlin? Interesting measure, but I guess because of its status as a financial center?
+8
Level 58
Feb 20, 2017
Yea, prolly. And plus, frankfurt is doing great right now in the Bundesliga (THAT'S ALL THAT MATTERS! LIKE, AT ALL!)
+7
Level 59
Feb 24, 2017
And Frankfurt has the only proper skylinie in Germany
+2
Level 54
Dec 10, 2021
Munich should be Alpha++ then
+7
Level 74
Aug 6, 2017
Yeah, Frankfurt is Germany's main financial centre. Berlin isn't actually that significant on the global scale.
+5
Level 73
Jan 2, 2018
It's the same reason why New York City is more important than Washington, D.C.
+20
Level 68
Dec 26, 2019
Frankfurt also has a functioning airport, unlike Berlin.
+3
Level 79
Feb 17, 2020
I visited Berlin in 2015 by first landing at an airport.
+2
Level 72
Mar 27, 2020
It's the EUs main financial centre now, if it wasn't before.
+4
Level 41
Aug 20, 2019
Munich & Frankfurt would both rank higher than Berlin. Australia's capital, Canberra, would probably rank 7th in Australia
+6
Level 38
Mar 26, 2020
Milan is also > Rome, Mumbai > Delhi, Toronto > Ottawa. It's not too surprising that Frankfurt bests berlin in this regard
+13
Level 76
Feb 20, 2017
Congratulations relessness for another attractive and interesting quiz! But the data: No Rio? No Istanbul? No Bangkok? I bet this "study group" is a gaggle from the West who dreamt this list up over morning coffee.
+7
Level 74
Feb 20, 2017
Population on its own doesn't necessarily correlate to global influence in finance, trade and government policy
+11
Level 43
Feb 20, 2017
Jerry made no mention of population. All of the cities are significant global cities regarding all of the aspects you just described.
+2
Level 74
Sep 19, 2017
But not as significant as those cities above them
+4
Level 82
Feb 20, 2017
Rio is ranked as a Beta city. Bangkok and Istanbul are Alpha - cities. But, according to Wikipedia, so is Jakarta. I think Jakarta is included on the quiz by mistake.
+1
Level 66
Feb 20, 2017
Well I am also confused on what makes a city an "Alpha City". Almost all of these cities are most populous in their country (unless there are multiple in the same country." But if it were population based then why aren't Lagos, Cairo, Delhi, Lima, Istanbul, Manila, or Ho Chi Minh City which are all considerably larger than some of these cities.
+13
Level 74
Aug 6, 2017
Population isn't the consideration. The main factor is the size of the city's financial centre and how much trade passes through it.
+1
Level 80
Feb 20, 2017
Are you triggered by the fact that the West is the Best?
+3
Level 75
Feb 20, 2017
I'd never heard of this ranking before and did some research - apparently several factors are considered, but economics carries more weight than size, cultural, or political factors. Basically it's those cities which best integrate, connect and provide links with, and promote global economics.
+1
Level 73
Feb 20, 2017
Only missed Washington D.C.
+4
Level 82
Feb 20, 2017
This quiz was easy before even without the map. Now its super easy.
+1
Level 55
Feb 20, 2017
Just missed two: Washington D.C and Frankfurt! Great quiz, relessness!
+2
Level 32
Feb 20, 2017
Brussels in, Rome out as global city. OK.......
+7
Level 47
Feb 20, 2017
I'm presuming the cities have to have some global influence. Which is probably why Brussels is in it, considering that it is where the EU is mainly based
+2
Level 63
Feb 20, 2017
It's interesting that many of the cities are in Europe and none of the cities are in Africa.
+4
Level 74
Aug 6, 2017
Because Africa has little to no impact on the global economy.
+2
Level 61
May 17, 2021
So far, that can change as both it's population and economies keep growing at a fast pace. When I was born, Chiina was considered a Third World country. Look where they're at right now...
+1
Level 79
Mar 7, 2023
China is still a Third World country.
+1
Level 61
Feb 20, 2017
How did I miss Beijing?
+1
Level 41
Feb 21, 2017
Nooooooo! Missed Hong Kong and Mexico City!
+1
Level 43
Feb 21, 2017
Would be interesting and challenging a version with the betas also.
+1
Level 62
Apr 15, 2017
Needs less time. 1:30 should be a good amount of time that will weed most people out from getting all 28.
+1
Level 67
Jun 17, 2017
Always like map quizzes so well done.
+1
Level 71
Mar 20, 2018
Why Jakarta? Didn't seem overly global when I went there.
+1
Level 63
Jan 27, 2022
It is the 2nd largest city in the world by metro population.
+1
Level 79
Feb 17, 2020
Hi relessness, please update the data to the GaWC report of 2018. Also, why didn't you include the Alpha− cities?
+1
Level 68
Mar 24, 2020
This might not be what you asked for, but I recently created a quiz using the GaWC 2018 study, and added all the Alpha, Beta and Gamma cities to a map, in case you wanted to check it out ;) Here it is
+1
Level 66
Jun 11, 2020
Very easy:)
+3
Level 71
Sep 21, 2020
This quiz definitely needs to be updated for 2020: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization_and_World_Cities_Research_Network#Alpha_++
+1
Level 78
Sep 28, 2021
Feel free to make your own version
+1
Level 72
Oct 25, 2020
So Washington is off the list, but Brussels is on there? Seems weird... EU partial capital or not.
+1
Level 88
Oct 25, 2020
Also NATO capital
+1
Level 68
Oct 27, 2020
I've been to 7 of these Alpha cities, yay
+1
Level 59
Dec 26, 2020
I just wasn't able to get Kuala Lumpur, because I didn't know what it was.
+2
Level 77
Feb 2, 2021
It's quite a central hub in Southeast Asia.
+1
Level 88
Dec 28, 2020
If this is just business and not politics, I would still think the lobbyists buying laws in Washington is a massive economy and influence on the world in its own right. If politics alone enter in any way, D.C. is clearly the most influential in that respect.
+1
Level 29
Dec 29, 2020
Wait lol what exactly is an Alpha city?
+2
Level 63
Jan 13, 2021
They're with importance for the global economic. Guess Alpha > Alpha+ > Alpha++ sounds better than important city > super important city > even more than super important city. :-P
+1
Level 58
Jan 11, 2021
how about seoul cairo or karachi?
+2
Level 59
Feb 15, 2021
ask the source not the quiz maker
+1
Level 44
Feb 25, 2021
the only problem is that I cant ever get sau paulo on any quiz because you need to weird a and i cant type that in my keyboard
+5
Level 80
Jul 28, 2021
You actually don't need " ã ", Sao Paulo with a normal a will be accepted as well.

I noticed however you have spelled it "Sau" instead of ''Sao'' which does not work.

+1
Level 42
Jul 26, 2021
What about Cairo, Athens, Istanbul, Rome and Bangkok?
+1
Level 78
Sep 28, 2021
They didn't make the Globalization and World Cities Study Group (2012) list
+4
Level 34
Nov 19, 2021
Beta cities when 😳
+1
Level 63
Jan 27, 2022
Sigma cities B)
+1
Level 67
Feb 22, 2022
Kind of surprised San Francisco didn't make the list.

I guess the same with Shenzhen, though it probably gets lumped in with Hong Kong.

+1
Level 79
Mar 7, 2023
Shenzhen never gets (and shouldn't get) lumped with Hong Kong.
+1
Level 53
Mar 8, 2022
This was made too easy by giving a map lol
+1
Level 33
Jul 26, 2022
tbh i really expected to see Guangzhou and Istanbul
+1
Level 55
Jul 26, 2022
3:28 left
+1
Level 59
Nov 22, 2022
either global or world is redunant in the title. You can't put global cities on a local map without it being false and while you could put local cities on a global map....why?
+1
Level 55
Mar 31, 2023
Chicago omg I was thinking philadelphia or Boston

I'm not good with usa cities

+1
Level 66
May 11, 2023
I wish I knew of a video that went over major cities of the world.

It seems like it's hard to determine what makes a city important. I'd like to look past population, and quotas.

+1
Level 57
May 13, 2023
I agree but Delhi, Bangkok, Seoul, Osaka, Manila, Bangalore, Guangzhou-Shenzhen, San Francisco, Istanbul, Riyadh, and Buenos Aires seem like they might have a place
+1
Level 31
Dec 5, 2023
Yes Delhi was surprising but none in Africa? Maybe like Johannesburg, Cairo, or Lagos?
+1
Level 63
Dec 28, 2023
how is dubai more important than la, dubai is some kind of joke of a city, a bunch of rich people's vacation place built on slave labor, here in la we have one of the world's largest city economies, 18 million people, the largest cargo port in the western hemisphere, the rich people's houses and we're way more iconic