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Cities with the Biggest Economies

Try to name the urban areas with the largest Gross Domestic Products.
Urban area, not city proper. 2021 data.
See comments for methodology and sources
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: April 10, 2022
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First submittedJanuary 9, 2012
Times taken106,428
Average score67.4%
Rating4.91
7:00
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 / 43 guessed
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GDP ($)
City
2206 bil
Tokyo
1874 bil
New York
1546 bil
Shanghai / Suzhou
1369 bil
Guangzhou / Shenzhen
1134 bil
Los Angeles
1125 bil
Seoul
1064 bil
London
1037 bil
Paris
1005 bil
Moscow
953 bil
San Francisco / San Jose
951 bil
Beijing
897 bil
Osaka
859 bil
Istanbul
842 bil
Jakarta
715 bil
Chicago
GDP ($)
City
699 bil
Rhine-Ruhr
658 bil
Chongqing
607 bil
Mumbai
600 bil
Singapore
595 bil
Delhi
586 bil
Taipei
584 bil
São Paulo
579 bil
Washington, D.C.
560 bil
Bangkok
547 bil
Mexico City
524 bil
Dallas
513 bil
Boston
489 bil
Houston
486 bil
Chengdu
475 bil
Toronto
GDP ($)
City
472 bil
Hong Kong
456 bil
Philadelphia
444 bil
Seattle
432 bil
Atlanta
410 bil
Wuhan
406 bil
Dhaka
406 bil
Milan
404 bil
Nagoya
397 bil
Hangzhou
389 bil
Miami
382 bil
Buenos Aires
377 bil
Madrid
371 bil
Tianjin
363 bil
Nanjing
+4
Level ∞
Apr 10, 2022
The source data comes from here but is collected in more useable form by Wikipedia.

Note that we are using the Purchasing Power Parity numbers.

Also, as usual, we filled in the "loosely-defined" Ruhr area.

+42
Level 56
Jan 4, 2014
The capitals of countries are easy. It's just hard to remember all the American and Chinese cities here.
+1
Level 60
Sep 14, 2023
Exactly me. I missed one US city (Chicago) and one Chinese city (Nanjing).
+1
Level 59
Nov 22, 2023
As an American, US cities come easily. There are a lot of them though, which shows how wealthy the US really is. Same can be said about China. Other countries rely mostly on their capitals for their profits, like Taiwan, Bangladesh, South Korea, and Mexico, since their tourism would also be high. Chicago is generally an easier city in the US to get on quizzes, unlike maybe Seattle.
+5
Level 50
Apr 17, 2014
Finally, 50 with 3:50 to spare. I almost always ended up 47, 48 and 49.. :)

Great quiz, thanks!

+8
Level 76
Jul 10, 2014
Berlin? Rome?
+51
Level 77
Jul 15, 2016
Karachi? Canberra? What game are we playing???
+40
Level 69
Sep 3, 2018
lmao Canberra is tiny
+5
Level 60
Apr 27, 2022
Karachi is defo extremely poor
+1
Level 50
Jun 13, 2022
Rio De Janeiro?
+1
Level 59
Nov 22, 2023
Sydney would be the powerhouse for Australia, not Canberra lol
+7
Level 60
Apr 23, 2019
Berlin has just a lot of inhabitants, they arent really that strong in economy nor are they really rich
+4
Level 56
Apr 26, 2022
Isn't it one of the poorest parts of the country, Berlin? Or at least one of the poorest cities? I seem to remember hearing something like that recently.
+4
Level 22
Nov 14, 2022
Yes, i am from Germany and Berlin is indeed one of the poorest parts in Germany.

Fun Fact: without Berlin the Germany economy would do even better.

+24
Level 83
Mar 30, 2015
For some unknown reason, I typed Constantinople. I cannot believe how stupid I feel right now....
+28
Level 71
Apr 5, 2016
And old
+50
Level 77
Jul 15, 2016
Give the guy a break...he's at least 563 years old. Dude's lucky he can see the keyboard.
+4
Level 60
Jan 5, 2021
It only officially changed in 1923, although people did use the name well before the Byzantine Empire fell.
+34
Level 56
Apr 23, 2019
Is it the new name of Byzantion? I can't keep up with these constant changes...
+7
Level 75
Dec 4, 2020
Istanbul is kind of a stupid name anyway, it means "to the city"
+3
Level 73
Nov 1, 2021
One day, maybe
+1
Level 60
Sep 14, 2023
And that day is centuries ago.
+2
Level 68
Dec 9, 2015
40/50 - Challenging and fun! I managed to get Fukuoka, Chongqing, and Busan yet missed Buenos Aires, Istanbul, and Bangkok!
+1
Level 59
Nov 22, 2023
DUDE HOW? Those are, well, kinda random! Istanbul is really popular...
+3
Level 37
May 29, 2016
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.
+5
Level 84
Jul 26, 2016
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.
+2
Level 62
May 23, 2021
I would probably give New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Dallas if asked. The top 3 are pretty well ahead of the rest, but according to the 2019 MSA estimate, Dallas, Houston, DC, Miami, Philadelphia, and Atlanta are all in the 7.5 to 6 million range.
+1
Level 68
May 3, 2022
Dallas has never been in the top 5. It's been NYC, LA, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia for many decades now.
+2
Level 54
May 29, 2016
Chungking should be acceptable for Chongqing
+9
Level 65
Oct 26, 2021
nah
+1
Level 60
Sep 14, 2023
This is an actual romanization, not just a misspelling...
+2
Level 79
Mar 7, 2023
Yeah, and Peking for Beijing, and Tientsin for Tianjin, just as Canton is accepted for Guangzhou, and Nanking is accepted for Nanjing.
+2
Level 71
May 29, 2016
I was surprised to see Seoul at No. 4, I can't think why they have such a large economy almost as large as Los Angeles and more than London.
+13
Level 82
Jul 6, 2016
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.
+4
Level 82
Jul 6, 2016
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.
+2
Level 56
Apr 26, 2022
The way Seoul looks on something like Google Maps always amazes me. It's as if almost a quarter of the land area of the whole country is covered by its urban area and the cities contiguous with it. Compare it with London and the contrast is pretty stark (thank you green belt!)
+4
Level 40
May 29, 2016
Suzhou is a large city just west of Wuxi and Shanghai. It has a population of around 10 million people as well as its very own metro system.
+5
Level 79
Mar 4, 2019
And I LIVE THERE
+2
Level 65
May 29, 2016
No Lagos?
+4
Level ∞
Jun 17, 2016
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.
+2
Level 65
May 29, 2016
I got Busan but missed Hong Kong, Singapore, Seattle, and Istanbul.
+1
Level 82
May 29, 2016
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.
+2
Level 61
May 31, 2016
Fun quiz. Surprisingly no Dubai and no Abu Dhabi. And I thought the city of Detroit was broke...
+5
Level 82
Jun 11, 2016
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.
+7
Level 74
Jul 3, 2016
Looks like Qingdao just edged it out in the updated quiz. The twilight continues.
+1
Level 82
Jul 6, 2016
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?
+1
Level 62
Feb 22, 2021
Maybe Brussels has some profit from the EU headquarters being there. I wonder if the central location between Paris, the Netherlands and western Germany helps? And the rail link to London.

Super interesting quiz - good work QM, learned a lot from that, with some surprises.

+6
Level 79
Aug 6, 2016
I'm not impressed with the Brookings Institute's notion of a metro area. Amsterdam is 49 miles from Rotterdam, over an hour by road.
+1
Level 65
Aug 9, 2016
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."
+2
Level 56
Apr 26, 2022
Yes, it is very much a North-American or Australian view of an urban area. An American's "liberal" idea of an urban area is a European's idea of "several urban areas" I suspect.
+1
Level 75
Feb 22, 2021
Yeah I didn't guess either because they're not huge on their own. Very weird to lump them together.

Does Brussels include Ghent and Antwerp as well???

+1
Level 56
Apr 26, 2022
And Charleroi, and Liège...?

All very odd.

+1
Level 37
Sep 3, 2016
^ 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
+2
Level 57
Nov 15, 2020
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.
+4
Level 88
Apr 13, 2018
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!
+2
Level 74
May 1, 2018
Has this been updated for 2018, or are we working with old data?
+2
Level ∞
Mar 5, 2019
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.
+1
Level 79
Mar 4, 2019
I live in Suzhou! :)
+1
Level 93
May 9, 2019
Me too (for now, I travel around)! Which part?
+1
Level 79
Nov 30, 2019
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.
+2
Level 71
Apr 23, 2019
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.
+1
Level 69
Apr 27, 2019
missed brussels and the korean cities (shame) and the least guessed chinese (oh well)
+2
Level 46
May 1, 2019
As a Minneapolis resident, I typed in my city while not expecting it to make the list. But we made it in at #49!
+2
Level 50
Jun 25, 2019
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.
+1
Level 84
Apr 11, 2022
Had a look at the ghost cities in China yet? Not all is as it seems in China.

The US definitely has its own financial house of cards with all the dollar printing in the last 2 years, but China has similar issues with their financial system.

+1
Level 82
Oct 18, 2019
You better know your Chinese and American cities!
+1
Level 51
Dec 21, 2019
Dem Minnesotans be makin' that rack
+1
Level 70
Mar 19, 2020
Damn how did I miss Singapore
+1
Level 62
Mar 26, 2020
Strange list, I'm not sure if I can believe its accuracy. So Jakarta is richer than Milan or Toronto.
+4
Level 57
Dec 4, 2020
Way, way more people
+1
Level 38
Mar 29, 2020
Too little time...
+1
Level 29
Jul 29, 2020
why there so many chinese and america cities??
+7
Level 82
Jul 29, 2020
They have large economies.
+7
Level 57
Dec 4, 2020
By far the two largest economies in the world have the cities with the largest economies. How is that possible?
+1
Level 56
Apr 26, 2022
Well – the largest economies characterised by lots of different, well-defined cities. Interesting that Germany is the fourth-largest economy in the world but doesn't actually have any specific cities on the list, presumably because their economic activity is spread (unevenly) across the country rather than in many discrete urban centres.
+3
Level 40
Jul 28, 2021
surprised no rio de janeiro there!
+2
Level 40
Jul 28, 2021
and no dubai
+2
Level 48
Sep 12, 2021
I am proud of my country.
+5
Level 59
Nov 29, 2021
ok
+1
Level 49
Dec 31, 2021
Minneapolis??? lmao

good for you minny

+1
Level 63
Feb 9, 2022
Why is that funny?
+1
Level 84
Apr 11, 2022
It's off the list this year, but shouldn't be a surprise. MSP has >3M people, high average income, and is home to more Fortune 500 companies than most people realize. (UnitedHealth, 3M, Target, BestBuy, General Mills, etc.)
+1
Level 53
Apr 26, 2022
i cant believe i forgot new york
+1
Level 72
Apr 26, 2022
Surprised that Dhaka makes the list over Cairo, Johannesburg, Tehran, and Kuala Lumpur; cities in the same ballpark of population but in countries two to three times as rich as Bangladesh
+1
Level 56
Apr 26, 2022
I wonder if it's because in each of those countries there are other large or influential cities (Alexandria, Cape Town, Tabriz, lots in Malaysia) whereas in Bangladesh it's all about Dhaka. That is a totally unscientific guess.
+1
Level 71
Dec 17, 2022
Kuala Lumpur has about 9.1 million people and Johannesburg has 8.4 million--nowhere near Dhaka's 21 million. I highly doubt Cairo is richer than Dhaka (although I still did think it would make this list). Not sure about Tehran. If you visit Dhaka though, you'll see that it's bustling and rapidly growing, catching up to similarly sized Indian cities like Delhi. And as Kalbahamut says below, it's the center of one of the world's largest garment industries, which is one of the reasons why it is growing so much economically.
+1
Level 60
Apr 27, 2022
Not a single African city and I don't know what that shows
+1
Level 59
Apr 27, 2022
oh i got 35/43 but somehow forgot new york
+1
Level 55
Jun 9, 2022
I get chongqing, but I forget tokyo
+1
Level 42
Sep 20, 2022
Dhaka?? How?? That one is a HUGE surprise
+2
Level 82
Nov 1, 2022
I think that might be a new addition with the last update? But, also... it's a city of 22 million people and more or less capital of the international garment manufacturing industry at this point.
+1
Level 82
Nov 1, 2022
How does Riyadh not make the list? Even assuming Riyadh, the country's main economic hub only has the same per capita GDP as the country as a whole, we get:

Saudi GDP (PPP) per capita: $55,368

Riyadh population (2018): 7,676,654

With the power of multiplication we get a rough figure of $425 billion.

+1
Level 44
Mar 21, 2023
I personally would suggest Dakka being an acceptable alternative answer for Dhaka x
+1
Level 60
Sep 14, 2023
Dacca is accepted. I've never heard Dakka.
+2
Level 68
Aug 21, 2023
I always pass by Hangzhou and Nanjing because I thought they're too small. Especially with other Chinese giants like Tianjin or Chengdu not on the list.
+1
Level 49
Nov 30, 2023
39/43, pretty happy with that/ Surprised cities like Xian, Xiamen, Chengdu don't make the list.