New York ranked as No. 1 global city

CHICAGO, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- A Chicago think tank has ranked the world's leading cities on the extent of their global connections, determining that New York is the top "global city."

The project was carried out jointly by Foreign Policy magazine, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and A.T. Kearney, a Chicago-based consulting firm. They looked at measures of business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural activity and political engagement.

"The 60 cities included in this first Global Cities Index run the gamut of the modern urban experience," the council said in a statement. "There's thriving, wealthy London, with its firmly entrenched global networks built on the city's history as capital of an empire. But there are also Chongqing, Dhaka and Lagos, cities whose recent surges tell us a great deal about the direction globalization is heading and whose experiences offer lessons to other aspiring global cities."

In addition to New York, the top 10 included London, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Singapore, Chicago, Seoul and Toronto. They were followed by Washington, Beijing, Brussels, Madrid, San Francisco, Sydney, Berlin, Vienna, Moscow and Shanghai.