The largest 300 cities are home to a fifth of the world's people but account for nearly half of economic output

Screen capture of Global MetroMonitor by The Guardian
Screen capture of Global MetroMonitor by The Guardian - This interactive feature provides economic growth data (real GDP per capita and employment change) for the largest 300 metropolitan economies worldwide for three periods: 2011 to 2012, the latest year of a still-volatile period for the global economy; the minimum year of growth between 2007 and 2011; and 1993 to 2007, which provides the long-runtrend each metropolitan area followed prior to the recession. It further shows how metropolitan areas performed relative to their countries between 2011 and 2012 and identifies the degree to which metro areas have recovered from the downturn. The interactive also provides a series of basic economic data for each metropolitan area, including industry composition of metro output, population, metro area GDP, and metro area GDP per capita. © Brookings analysis of data from Oxford Economics, Moody’s Analytics, and the U.S. Census Bureau

It is frequently cited that more than half of us now live in cities. But it might come as more of a surprise to learn that the largest 300 cities, from New York to Guangzhou, account for nearly half (48%) of world economic output ... yet contain only 19% of world population.