Determining the richest city in the world can be tricky. This is because many different factors can be used to determine a city’s wealth. For example, the gross domestic product, or GDP, can be used as a measure of a city’s wealth. In its simplest term, the GDP of a region (such as country or city) is defined as the prices of goods and services produced within that area. To get a little more specific, GDP is calculated using the following formula:
Personal Consumption Expenditures + Business Investment + Government Spending + (Exports - Imports)
The GDP determines how wealthy a city is, and the higher the GDP, the wealthier the city. Based on GDP, the city of Tokyo, Japan is considered to be the richest city in the world. The GDP of Tokyo is $1.52 trillion.
Another trillion-dollar GDP city is New York City in the United States. The GDP of New York in 2018 is $1.21 trillion. These are the only two cities with trillion dollar economies.
The next richest city based on GDP is Los Angeles, California in the U.S. The GDP of this city in 2018 was $789.7 billion. The top ten richest cities based on GDP include:
Another way that the richest cities in the world can be measured is through the total wealth of its residents. A study by New World Wealth calculated the total wealth of citizens in cities around the world. According to New World Wealth, private wealth is a better indicator of the financial health of the economy than GDP, although this remains debatable.
Not surprisingly, many of the richest cities based on the wealth of its citizens are also on the top list of richest cities by GDP. On this list, New York City was ranked as the richest city with a total of $3 trillion in private wealth. London is ranked second with $2.7 billion in private wealth. Rounding out the top three cities is Tokyo, with $2.5 trillion in private wealth.
The top ten richest cities in the world based on private wealth include:
City | Country | GDP |
|---|---|---|
| Tokyo | Japan | $1.52 trillion |
| New York City | United States | $1.21 trillion |
| Los Angeles | United States | $789.7 billion |
| Seoul | South Korea | $779.3 billion |
| London | United Kingdom | $731.2 billion |
| Paris | France | $669.2 billion |
| Osaka | Japan | $654.8 billion |
| Chicago | United States | $524.6 billion |
| Moscow | Russia | $529.1 billion |
| Shanghai | China | $516.5 billion |