Power Players
One of the most significant trends of the modern era has been the migration of people from farms and rural environments to cities. According to the UN, more than half of the world's population now lives in cities. Africa and Asia are rapidly catching up to the more established urban cores of Europe and North America. In fact, the UN estimates that urban centers are expected to absorb all of the world's population growth through 2050, in addition to drawing in additional people from rural environments. Cities are engines of thought and commerce, political activity and culture. In today's globalized world, they jostle with one another to lure wealthy residents, corporate headquarters, startups and investment. The research firm Knight Frank has sized up the leading global metropolises in a report on global wealth. While ostensibly tailored toward the world's high net worth individuals, the research sheds light on just which cities weild power in today's global marketplace. To arrive at the measure of the most important cities, Knight Frank measured them across four metrics: 1. Economic activity: including output, income per head, financial and capital market activity and the number of international business headquarters in each city. 2. Political power: including the number of headquarters for national political organizations and international non-governmental organizations, together with the number of embassies and think tanks in each city. 3. Quality of life: including the levels of personal and political freedom, censorship, personal security, crime, political stability, health and public services, transportion, climate, leisure activites and culture. 4. Knowledge and influence: including the educational status and rank of the city's schools and educational facilities plus the number of national and international media outlets and news bureaus and their global market share. Here are the top ten. (AP Photo)
