The 10 Most Affluent Cities In The World

The Brookings Institution recently released its Global Metro Monitor 2014, which includes an updated list of the world’s wealthiest cities. Brookings looked at the 300 largest cities in the world and ranked the cities in order of gross domestic product per capita, adjusted for purchasing power parity (GDP-PPP).

According to Brookings, this number is an approximate representation of “the average standard of living in an area.”

A New Champion

This year, a new champion sits at the top of the list for the first time: Macau, China. Macau’s economy has rapidly expanded during the past decade after legalized gambling ushered in a tourism industry centered around casino megaresorts operated by companies such as Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd (ADR) MPEL, Wynn Resorts, Limited WYNN, MGM Resorts International MGM and Las Vegas Sands Corp. LVS.

Macau’s gaming revenue is now seven times greater than that of America’s Las Vegas Strip. Despite a decline in gaming revenue in 2014 mostly due to an anti-corruption crackdown in the city, Macau’s gross-gaming revenue still exceeded $40 billion for the year.

Related Link: Top 4 Stocks In The Gaming Activities Industry

The Rest Of The Top 10

Macau displaced Hartford, Connecticut – last year’s most affluent city. After Macau, the rest of the top 10 cities are all American cities:

• 1. Macau, China
• 2. Hartford, Connecticut
• 3. San Jose, California
• 4. Boston, Massachusetts
• 5. Houston, Texas
• 6. Bridgeport, Connecticut
• 7. Washington, D.C.
• 8. Seattle, Washington
• 9. San Francisco, California
• 10. New York, New York

Other Statistics

As usual, this year’s list was dominated by U.S. cities. In addition to nine of the top 10 cities, 37 of the top 50 cities are located in the United States. In contrast, Europe has only six cities in this year’s top 50.

Outside of the special island cities of Macau and Hong Kong (number 39 on the list), mainland China broke into the top 100 this year with the city of Suzhou now ranked 68.

Tokyo, Japan, the world’s largest city, did not fall in the top 100.

Disclosure: The author owns shares of Melco Crown Entertainment