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Two new locations entered Oxford Economics' global ranking of cities this year, which evaluates the attractiveness of their economies based on a number of different factors.
The economic advisory firm's Global Cities Index scored the 1,000 largest cities across five categories: economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance.
Mark Britton, director of city services at Oxford Economics, said: "The global economic environment is evolving. Over the past year, heightened geopolitical tensions and a rise in economic nationalism have contributed to increased levels of uncertainty and have adversely affected global economic growth."
"The significance of cities in this period of uncertainty can’t be overstated," he said. "They serve not only as centres of resilience but also as engines of adaptation and innovation, owing to their dynamic networks of businesses, institutions, and people."
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New York held onto the top spot in this year's rankings, with UK capital London coming in second place once again.
Both cities performed best in the economics and human capital categories, highlighting their roles as global hubs for finance, business, and education.
In addition, Oxford Economics pointed out that both have among the best universities and corporate headquarter offices.
The French capital of Paris took over in third place this year from the US city of San Jose, which fell to the fourth spot. Oxford Economics highlighted that Paris was now the fifth-largest city in the world, and the second largest in Europe, in terms of its gross domestic product (GDP), with its economy largely focused on services.
San Jose is renowned for the tech hub of Silicon Valley, which is home to big-name companies, including iPhone-maker Apple (AAPL), Google-parent Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) and social media giant Meta (META). Oxford Economics said that given technology firms generate significantly higher GDP than most industries, San Jose’s GDP per person is the highest of all 1,000 cities.
The US city of Seattle, which rounded out the top five, also boasts a major sector – with Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon (AMZN) both operating in the area.
"Aerospace is also a significant contributor to the economy, including Boeing (BA) (which was founded in the city)," the authors of the Global Cities Index said in the report.
"Seattle hosts several retail headquarters as well, including Starbucks (SBUX), Costco (COST), and Nordstrom (JWN). This range of large employers gives the city one of the highest levels of GDP per person in our index, and a healthy economic diversity measure."