Global Metropolis - assessing economic activity in global centers based on nighttime satellite images

Richard Florida, Charlotta Mellander and Tim Gulden
Additional contact information
Richard Florida: Martin Prosperity Institute
Tim Gulden: Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy

No 218, Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation from Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies

Abstract: This research provides new data and insight metropolitan areas worldwide. It summarizes new data, derived from satellite images of the world at night, to provide systematic estimates of the economic activity generated by cities and metropolitan areas worldwide. It identifies 681 global metropolitan areas each with more than 500,000 people. Taken as a whole, these large global metropolitan regions house 24 percent of world population but produce 60 percent of global output, measured as light emissions. Asia leads the way in global economic urbanization according to our findings, followed by North America, the emerging economies, and Europe.

Keywords: Metro regions; Globalization; Urbanization; Nighttime lights (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O18 R10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2010-02-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0218

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