Macau, the Chinese territory known for casino gambling, outperformed the rest of the world’s major cities economically last year, including all of those in the United States.



Cities in the developing world, especially China, dominated the top of the annual economic rankings of 300 cities worldwide by the Brookings Institution and JP Morgan Chase. The study ranks cities by growth in employment and in economic output per person.

US and British cities showed improvement, although in general they lagged behind China. Only hree US cities – Austin and Houston, Texas, and Raleigh, North Carolina – cracked the top 50. In the UK, London came in No 26, Manchester No 60.

Cities in wealthy countries tended to perform poorly. Though most of the cities surveyed around the world have recovered from the Great Recession, 65% of European and 57% of North American cities have not, according to the study. The United States and Britain have only just begun to pick up economic momentum 5½ years after the recession ended.

“In developed economies like North America and Western Europe, cities like London and Houston are flying high, while others like Rotterdam and Montreal are struggling,” Parilla said.

Macau has enjoyed a tourism boom, with gamblers coming to bet at more than 30 casinos, including the Venetian Macau, the world’s largest.

Twenty-seven of the 50 top-performing cities were Chinese. Increasingly, strong growth occurred in the traditionally underdeveloped cities of China’s interior, rather than its booming coastal cities. Land-locked Changsha, for instance, enjoyed economic growth per person of 8.6% last year and wound up No 15 in the overall rankings.

The coastal manufacturing powerhouse of Dongguan, next door to Hong Kong, registered per-capita economic growth of just 5.2% (unimpressive by Chinese standards) and finished No 70. Companies have begun to move inland as the cost of labor and land rises on the Chinese coast. And the Chinese government has invested heavily on infrastructure in the interior.

Bangkok, Thailand, came in last, its economy wrecked by political strife.

Cities in wealthy, developed countries tended to lag behind.



Big differences

Joseph Parilla, a Brookings research analyst who co-wrote the report, said he was surprised by the “incredible differentiation within what are considered monolithic economic blocs”.



Latin American cities, for instance, mostly sputtered. But Medellin, Colombia, and Lima, Peru, both broke into the top 50.

Commodities boom

The 18 cities worldwide that specialized in producing commodities such as oil registered the highest rates of growth in economic output per person (2.6%) and employment (1.9%).

“The recent rise in oil and gas production in North America partly explains the success of metropolitan areas like Calgary, Denver, Houston, and Tulsa, which are epicenters of the region’s shale revolution,” the report said.

Next year’s rankings may be different. Oil prices have plunged to less than $48 a barrel from $107 a barrel last June, jeopardizing the prospects of cities that had been riding the energy boom.

Turkish delight

Four Turkish cities made the top 10: Izmir, Istanbul, Bursa and Ankara. Turkish cities boomed last year despite political unrest. “If you look at world headlines, Turkey is not in the news for its economic success, but it probably should be,” Brookings’ Parilla says. “It has pretty solid macroeconomic policies.”

Turkey benefits from its location at the boundary between Europe and Asia and from heavy investment in roads and other infrastructure projects, which creates jobs over the short term and is likely to make the economy more efficient over the long term.



A list of the top notable cities on the list follows. They are listed by rank in the study; country; city; percent real GDP growth per capita; and employment growth in 2014.



1 Macau, Macau 8%; 4.2%



2 Turkey, Izmir 2% 6.6%



3 Turkey, Istanbul 2%, 6.5%



4 Turkey, Bursa 1.8% 6.4%



5 UAE, Dubai 4.5% 4.7%



6 China, Kunming 8.1% 2.9%



7 China, Hangzhou 7% 3.3%



8 China, Xiamen 8.6% 2.6%



9 Turkey,Ankara 1.1% 5.7%



12 Hungary Budapest 2.4% 4.7%



18 India Delhi 4.4% 3.3%



19 Malaysia Kuala Lumpur 4.1% 3.4%



25 Saudi Arabia Riyadh 1.9% 3.9%



26 United Kingdom London 2.5% 3.6%



38 USA Austin 1.9% 3.6%



39 USA Houston 1.6% 3.7%



41 USA Raleigh 0.8% 4%



48 Peru Lima 2.9% 2%

49 USA Fresno -0.9% 4.5%



60 United Kingdom Manchester 2.6% 2.0%



63 USA Dallas 0.8% 3.4%



65 USA Baton Rouge 1.5% 3%



66 USA Oklahoma City 1.8% 2.9%

67 China Beijing 4.7% 1.6%



68 USA Las Vegas 1.3% 3%



69 USA Grand Rapids 0.60% 3.30%



71 United Kingdom Edinburgh 1.5% 2.9%



72 USA San Jose 0.20% 3.40%



73 USA Orlando 0.10% 3.50%



74 Canada Vancouver 3.7% 1.9%



75 Australia Perth 3.4% 2.1%



78 Egypt Alexandria 0.9% 3.%



79 United Kingdom Bristol 2.1% 2.5%



80 Canada Quebec City 2.1% 2.4%



81 United Kingdom Liverpool 2.4% 2.3%



82 Egypt Cairo 0.7% 3% 41

83 USA Jacksonville 0.6% 3% 194

84 United Kingdom Nottingham-Derby 2.60% 2.2%



86 USA Nashville 0.7% 2.9%



91 United Kingdom Portsmouth-Southampton 2.1% 2.2%



92 China Shanghai 5.2% 0.9%



95 USA Denver 0.8% 2.7%



96 United Kingdom Birmingham 2.2% 2.1%



97 Kuwait Kuwait 0.6% 2.7%



99 USA Knoxville 1.3% 2.4%



100 USA Atlanta 1.5% 2.3%

