With its world-class cultural institutions, stunning natural landscape, and an economy that is – despite the fact many of us are still hunting for happy hours – relatively stable, the Harbour City has proven its mettle on the global scale once again. Just this month, Sydney was ranked as the tenth wealthiest city in the world, and Sydney’s Northern Beaches dominated the recently released wellbeing index which identified the healthiest places in Australia to call home. Regardless of how we feel about those findings (which highlight the inequality that exists in Australia right now), it’s interesting to learn how life in the Emerald City stacks up. Now, a brand-new study has ranked the top 1,000 largest cities across the world on a number of economic and social factors – and Sydney came in at number 16.
The first-ever Global Cities Index, published by Oxford Economics, is one of the most detailed city rankings to be released this year. We’re here to give you a speedy snapshot of Sydney’s performance. To determine the rankings, the economic experts scored the world’s 1,000 largest cities on 27 indicators across five categories, including Economics, Human Capital, Quality of Life, Environment and Governance. They then ranked the cities under each of these pillars and combined the scores to create an overall ranking of the top cities worldwide, and Australia’s seven biggest cities all scored in the top ten per cent.
Out of 1,000 cities worldwide, Sydney came in 16th position on the list of the world’s top cities in 2024. Sydney made its mark in the Human Capital category, securing the ninth spot overall, boasting higher average educational attainment, the largest number of corporate headquarters and the highest proportion of foreign-born residents among Australian cities. Sydney also just snuck into the top 20 in the Economics category, thanks to its stable GDP growth rates and large economic boosters from tourism. On the flip side, the NSW capital landed the unfortunate title of having the worst overall Environment ranking (363rd) out of all Australian cities, due to factors like its subtropical climate and greater vulnerability to bushfires. And with warnings for the warmest winter on record, we think this score carries some weight.
In the Global Cities Index, Sydney was outshone by Melbourne – with the Victorian capital coming in ninth overall. Perth cracked the top 2.5 per cent of cities worldwide, securing 23rd spot on the Index. It claimed top 100 positions for all categories, except Quality of Life (135th), with the city’s mining sector boosting its Economic and Human Capital rankings. Brisbane followed closely in 27th place on the global list. Strengths including its young workforce and state-of-the-art infrastructure were weighed down by the city having the highest exposure to natural disasters and steep housing prices. Canberra outranked all other Australian cities on the Quality of Life scale, ranking second best in the entire world. It was the only non-European city to crack the top ten, benefiting from among the highest life expectancy rates in the world and some of the highest and equally paid jobs. The final two Australian cities to make the list were Adelaide in 51st place and the Gold Coast in 81st position.
You can learn more about how Sydney compares to the other 1,000 cities ranked in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index here, and find a snapshot of how Australia's largest cities ranked below:
- Melbourne
- Sydney (#9 in Human Capital)
- Perth
- Brisbane
- Canberra (#2 in Environment)
- Adelaide
- Gold Coast