Three Sydney districts contributed nearly one-quarter of all the growth in Australia's economy last financial year as inner-city job hubs power ahead of the rest of the nation.

New analysis of district-level economic performance has revealed huge variations across the country.

Sydney's CBD area, the inner northern suburbs and the Ryde district together delivered 24 per cent of gross domestic product growth in 2015-16, research by consultancy group SGS Economics and Planning shows.

All three districts are within Sydney's "global economic corridor" which arcs from Macquarie Park through the CBD to Kingsford Smith airport. Many high value, knowledge-intensive industries have clustered in that corridor including finance, IT, professional services, engineering, research, healthcare, marketing and media. The Baulkham Hills and Hawkesbury district also registered very strong growth.