Hamburg, 26.04.2019 – Massive trends such as connectivity, globalization, and New Work are changing the way individuals live, interact, and communicate in society. Urbanization, i.e. the spread of urban lifestyles, is having a transformative impact on global economy and industry, consumer behavior, and the value chain. The Statista Global Business Cities Report 2025 provides insights into the status quo of the 200 most important cities in the world, a comparison between them, and an outlook for the developments of the next few years.

Currently, around 50% of the world's population live in cities – this share is expected to increase to 68% by 2050. This will entail enormous problems for society and the economy, which will need to be solved: increasing air pollution, housing shortage, and mobility issues.

The new Statista Global Business Cities 2025 Report lists the key market indicators of the 200 most important cities from 72 countries. Each city is compared, ranked and presented in separate profiles, with information on their economic conditions, demographics, infrastructure, logistics, and quality of life. With 480 pages, decision makers can gather valuable information for sound planning: The report serves as a basis for company expansion and investments, leads to a better understanding of local markets, and provides insights into the latest city trends and developments.

Megacities are on the rise

Megacities, i.e. cities with a population of more than 10 million, are still on the rise. Due to urbanization and rural depopulation, the number of megacities will amount to 37 by 2025. The largest population growths will occur in developing countries: Suzhou will grow by 27.81% by 2025; Nairobi (26.18%) and Hanoi (25.22%) will also experience high population growth.

Shenzhen, headquarters to some of the largest multinational companies, such as Tencent, ZTE, and Huawei, leads the GDP per capita ranking by a large margin (US$145,637). Osaka (US$113,505) and San Francisco (US$99,041) are ranked second and third respectively.

The complete report is available for download here.

Methodology

Multiple data sources were used to compile the key insights of the Global Business Cities 2025 Report. They include both secondary data by the IMF, World Bank, and UN, the OECD or the World Economic Forum and data collected by Statista itself. All sources are listed as such in the respective statistics. Where necessary, missing data points in time series were estimated by interpolation.