London ranked number 1 again in Global Power City Index

London has taken the top spot for the sixth consecutive year in the 2017 Global Power City Index (GPCI), which has been put together by the Mori Memorial Foundation’s Institute for Urban Strategies, Japan.

The GPCI evaluates and ranks 44 of the world’s major cities according to their “magnetism”, which the Foundation defines as a city's comprehensive power to attract creative people and business enterprises from around the world.

Global cities were appraised across five different categories: Economy, R&D, Cultural Interaction, Liveability, Environment and Accessibility.

London has built on its overall strengths by improving its ratings in the categories of GDP growth rate and the level of political, economic and business risk, compared to the 2016 study. 

The UK capital earned an extremely high score for ‘Richness of Human Resources’ and ‘Ease of Doing Business’ in the Economy category. 

The study acknowledged that there remains some uncertainty surrounding the UK’s exit from the European Union, but said that London’s strengths are balanced across several categories, which means the city has the potential to turn challenges into opportunities and extend its lead as the world’s top-ranked city in which to live and work.

Outside of macroeconomic factors, London also leads the world for attractiveness of dining options and the number of visitors from abroad, which were comprised in the ‘Cultural Interaction’ category of the study.

London did, however, score relatively poorly in the Liveability category, where the capital ranked 17th globally. However, it fared better than the world’s other major maritime business centres in the category. Singapore ranked 28th for liveability, with New York and Hong Kong in 34th and 36th place respectively. Berlin was named the world’s most liveable city, with Amsterdam coming second. 

“With its unrivalled talent pool, the presence of a huge number of global businesses across all sectors, and access to regulators, business support services and vital European markets, London is the best place in the world to do business,” Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, said in the study’s report.

“What's more, the capital's cultural attractions, food scene and sporting calendar are world-leading – just a few of the reasons London is such an attractive place to live and work,” he continued.

“We welcome the fact that London has again been voted the world’s number-one global city.,” says Ben Murray, manager of Maritime UK. 

“It’s testament to London’s strength that its global preeminence is recognised in so many indices and league tables. Earlier this year our capital once again climbed into Menon’s top five maritime cities and clinched the top spot in maritime finance and law. 

"London’s strengths are complimented by the unique and individual strengths of dynamic maritime clusters in Southampton, Scotland and Merseyside, which together mean that the UK offers the complete maritime package.”

You can read the 2017 GPCI report in full here.