A (Visual) Tale of 25 Cities (And Half The World's GDP)

Zero Hedge ^ | 11/23/2013 | Tyler Durden

[SeekAndFind]

With more people in the world living in cities than ever before, cities’ share of global GDP is rising: 25 cities account for approximately 50% of the world’s GDP. But not all cities can be winners, and not all are destined for greatness. The following smorgasbord of charts highlight how successful cities have typically had natural advantages such as location, time zone and resources; but more importantly, to remain successful they need education, a skilled workforce, strong property rights, a broad base of industries and in some cases, policies aimed at attracting capital and talent. Conversely, As Goldman notes, when cities fail it tends to be either because of an overreliance on an industry that has seen a dramatic shift in its profitability, or as a result of the vested interests of those that control them.

 

It took 1000 years for Rome to be topples as the world's largest (by population) city...

The following 12 charts suggest some cities are on the ascent, some are bubbling dangerously, and others have reached 'peak' citiness...

 

[Cyber Liberty]

[James C. Bennett]

Not surprising. The area in the circle has more arable land (land where food can be grown) multiple times more than the rest of the world, combined.

[kabar]

The area in the circle has more arable land (land where food can be grown) multiple times more than the rest of the world, combined.

Source please.

[slouper]

I call BS.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks SeekAndFind.

[SunkenCiv]

by 1519, the population of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City today) exceeded 200,000, and estimates range as high as 300,000. Cortez and the gang had never seen a city so big, and probably never would again.

http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/engl257/Ren/aztec_empire_in_1519.htm

[1010RD]

I’ll take Zurich’s high speed, low cost internet connection. How did they do that?

[SunkenCiv]

It was all that watchmaking experience. Also, the population centers of Europe have to communicate with one another, and those high-speed lines have just so many routes available — Germany to Italy, Italy to France and the Low Countries, France to eastern Europe...

[SunkenCiv]

That more-than-half number didn’t seem quite right, but India and China are joined by other very populous states such as Indonesia and Bangladesh, etc. The arable land claim I’m not too sure about, because there has been a lot of dessication and desertification in both India and China, but for example in N America the bulk of the arable land is east of the Rockies, and a good bit is technically arable but too cold to support agriculture. Nearly half of Africa is the Sahara, so despite the productivity of the ribbon of arable land along the Nile and some other rivers, not much there. Australia’s arable land is mostly in the SE. South America is similar to North America, arable land east of the Andes, and much of that is not cultivated, although it is fertile enough (and well-watered) to support modern agriculture. Slash and burn methods have been used with consistent success in the wet-dry tropics for millennia.

[blam]

Sundaland
(Humans must have flourished here during the Ice Age)

"The cradle of human civilization may well have been the prehistoric lowlands of the Southeast Asian peninsula, rather than the Middle East. Since those lowlands ‘sank’ beneath the seas thousands of years ago (actually drowned by rising sea levels), humanity has remained unaware of their possible significance up through the early 21st century.

Unaware except, that is, for a so-called myth perpetuated by a respected Greek philosopher named Plato, before 347 BC. Plato spoke of an advanced civilization named Atlantis, which sank below the seas perhaps around 9,000 BC. It may well be he wasn’t so far off after all.

The Asian legend of Mu is very similar to the western tales of Atlantis, involving a great landmass that sunk beneath the seas long ago.

Sundaland (the lowlands of the greater Southeast Asian Peninsula) is the current name applied to the largest single section of Asian real estate submerged by rising sea levels after the last Ice Age.

This area when above water would have been twice the size of India, and included what we now call Indo-China, Malaysia and Indonesia. The South China Sea, the Gulf of Thailand and the Java Sea, formed the connecting parts. There are also sunken tracts of Pacific coastline, which once covered the East China and Yellow Seas, and linked China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Apparently, the present location of Hong Kong and other Chinese ports were “hundreds of miles inland during the last Ice Age”. These areas were submerged by the Great Flood.

(snip)

[BroJoeK]

Interesting data.
Note with interest and surprise the "wallet experiment" won by Lisbon and Madrid, with good showings in Prague, Rio De Janeiro, Zurich & Bucharest.

But I wonder, precisely which sections were used in the experiments, to make these cities look so good?
Something tells me that visitors to some parts of, for example, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil would not find their lost wallets so quickly returned.

[gleeaikin]

Are you joking, or did you NOT understand that Lisbon, Madrid, Prague and Rio were the worst at returning wallets. Helsinki was the best returning 11 out of 12, followed by Mumbai, Budapest, and New York. In NY, 8 of 12 were returned, but in Rio only 4 of 12.

[BroJoeK]

Sadly, I was not joking.
Thanks for cluing me in.
Somehow I thought maybe the world had tuned upside down since last I checked in on it.

:-\