Wouldn’t you know it, Toronto is one of the most influential cities in the world and it has nothing to do with our loud-mouth mayor.
According to a report published on Monday by Forbes, Toronto is the 10th most influential city in the world.
The list was compiled for Forbes by three experts. They were urban geographer and author Joel Kotkin, former Accenture analyst Aaron Renn and demographer Wendell Cox. Together, the three urban geeks looked at the world’s 58 leading metropolitan areas and based their evaluations on eight factors, including the amount direct foreign investment each city attracts; concentration of foreign headquarters; the amount of business niches each city dominates; air connectivity—that is, how easy is the city to access via plane; strength of producer services; financial services; technology and media power; and racial diversity.
The first three cities on the list—London, New York and Paris—should be no surprise. However, what is surprising about the list is the company Toronto finds itself in; according to Forbes, Toronto is as influential as Los Angeles and San Francisco. These are cities that, especially in the case of San Francisco with its dominant tech scene, dominate the discussion when it comes to what people perceive as an influential urban hub. They’re also cities that Toronto can learn a lot from when it comes to how not to approach certain problems.
What is perhaps the most interesting part of the report, however, is the suggestion that city size does not equate to influence. “For the time being, the future of the global city belongs not to the biggest or fastest growing but the most efficient and savvy, and those with a strong historical pedigree. This raises the bar for all cities that wish to break into this elite club.”
Indeed, cities that are much larger than Toronto like Mumbai and Delhi only ranked in the low 30s.”Until these areas can develop adequate infrastructure—from roads, transit and bridges to relatively non-corrupt judicial systems—none can be expected to crack the top 10, or even 20, for at least a decade,” says the report. In a way, Forbes has reaffirmed what most of us already know: Toronto’s future as one of the best city’s in the world is dependent on further transit and infrastructure investment.
The full list is as follows:
1) London
2) New York
3) Paris
4) Singapore
5) Tokyo
6) Hong Kong
7) Dubai
8) Tie between Beijing, Sydney
10) Tie between Los Angeles, San Francisco and Toronto
In any case, we may sometimes feel like we live in an inferior city, but the truth is we’re pretty awesome. So chin up, Toronto. [via Forbes]
Image via Flickr user Caruba.
____
Igor Bonifacic is the managing editor of Toronto Standard. Follow him on Twitter.
For more, follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our newsletter.
