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The GaWC examines cities worldwide to narrow them down to a roster of world cities, then ranks these based on their connectivity through four "advanced producer services": accountancy, advertising, banking/finance, and law.^[3] The GaWC inventory ranks city economics more heavily than political or cultural factors.^[why?] Beyond the categories of "Alpha" world cities (with four sub-categories), "Beta" world cities (three sub-categories), and "Gamma" world cities (three sub-categories), the GaWC cities include additional cities at "High sufficiency" and "Sufficiency" level.

GaWC has published city classifications in 1998, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2018 and 2020.^[4] The 2004 rankings added several new indicators while continuing to rank city economics more heavily than political or cultural factors. The 2008 roster, similar to the 1998 version, is sorted into categories of Alpha world cities (with four sub-categories), Beta world cities (three sub-categories), Gamma world cities (three sub-categories), and additional cities with High sufficiency or Sufficiency presence. The list has been prone to change in the ranks. For example, some cities have been no longer classified as sufficient level that were selected prior 2018 like the United States cities, Greensboro and Providence.^[5][6]

The classification "results are derived from the activities of 175 leading firms providing advanced producer services across 707 cities worldwide (i.e. the input is 175 x 707 = 123,725 pieces of information). The results should be interpreted as indicating the importance of cities as nodes in the world city network (i.e. enabling corporate globalization)."^[7] The cities in the 2020 classification are as follows.^[8]

( 1) or ( 1) indicates a city moved one category up or down since the 2018 classification.^[9]

Alpha

Alpha level cities are linked to major economic states and regions and into the world economy and are classified into four sections, Alpha ++, Alpha +, Alpha, and Alpha − cities.

Alpha ++

Alpha ++ cities are cities most integrated with the global economy:

Alpha +

Alpha + are "other highly integrated cities that complement London and New York, largely filling in advanced service needs for the Pacific/Asia":^[10]

Alpha

Alpha −

Beta

Beta level cities are cities that link moderate economic regions to the world economy and are classified into three sections, Beta +, Beta, and Beta − cities.

Beta +

Beta

Beta −

Gamma

Gamma level cities are cities that link smaller economic regions into the world economy and are classified into three sections, Gamma +, Gamma, and Gamma − cities.

Gamma +

Gamma

Gamma −

Sufficiency

Sufficiency level cities are cities that have a sufficient degree of services so as not to be overly dependent on world cities. This is sorted into High Sufficiency cities and Sufficiency cities.

High Sufficiency

Sufficiency

The following cities were included in the 2018 edition, but not in the 2020 edition:

In addition to the ranked cities. GaWC acknowledged the very large cities in its climate edition.^[11] The following cities were not ranked in the world of GaWC list but were on the climate edition (Note: Does not include Delhi since New Delhi is part of it):

• Global city

• Globalization and World Cities Research Network official website

Category:Research institutes in LeicestershireCategory:Social science institutesCategory:Think tanks established in 1998Category:1998 establishments in EnglandCategory:Loughborough UniversityCategory:Global studies research