The World According to GaWC 2024
London and New York remain most connected cities in the world within a network of 335 cities, followed closely by major hubs in Asia. Some 49 cities across the globe have been identified as alpha cities – key players in enabling today’s economic globalisation.
In a huge study of 785 cities across the world, researchers from the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) research network, based at Loughborough University and KU Leuven, have classified 335 cities into 12 categories based on how connected they are.
Alpha++ cities In all analyses, London and New York stand out as clearly more integrated than all other cities and constitute their own high level of integration.
Alpha+ cities Other highly integrated cities that complement London and New York, largely filling in advanced service needs for Pacific Asia.
Alpha & alpha- cities Very important world cities that link major economic regions and states into the world economy.
Beta level cities These are important world cities that are instrumental in linking their region or state into the world economy.
Gamma level cities These can be world cities linking smaller regions or states into the world economy, or important world cities whose major global capacity is not in advanced producer services.
Cities with sufficiency of services These are cities that are not world cities as defined here but they have sufficient services so as not to be overtly dependent on world cities. Two specialised categories of city are common at this level of integration: smaller capital cities, and traditional centres of manufacturing regions.
