It's interesting to look at the economies of major metropolises. New York still holds the position as the richest city in the world with a GDP of about $2.3 trillion. Next to it is Tokyo with $2.1 trillion. But if you look more broadly, the picture is quite instructive.

The top is clearly dominated by American cities — out of the twenty wealthiest cities, nearly half are in the USA. Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Washington, Houston, Boston, Atlanta, Seattle, Philadelphia. Each of them generates hundreds of billions of dollars annually.

Europe is also in the game — Paris, London, the Rhine-Ruhr region in Germany. And Asia is growing more slowly but steadily. Shanghai and Beijing are already in the top, although they lag behind Western leaders. Seoul shows good results. São Paulo in Brazil is the only Latin American representative on the list.

Honestly, these 2024 data show that the richest city remains the richest, but the gap between the leaders and the rest of the world is widening. It will be interesting to see how this changes by 2026.