Powered by a booming energy business, the Houston regional economy grew faster last year than any other in North America, the Brookings Institution reports.
Houston and Dallas were the only two major metropolitan economies on the continent to rank among the world’s most robust in 2010-2011. The findings underscored a larger global shift away from traditional power centers, primarily to Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.
“Large, mature metro economies like Tokyo, New York and London still have a lot of firepower, but high-performance metros like Shanghai, Istanbul and Santiago continued to close the gap last year,” Emilia Istrate, a Brookings analyst who co-authored the study, said in a statement.
The Global MetroMonitor rankings use such factors as population, employment and per-capita income to present a snapshot of the world’s economic might. The report released Wednesday calculated Houston to be No. 19 globally in terms of growth and Dallas No. 36.
No other region in North America finished in the top 40 among the largest 200 metro areas, which account for half the world’s economy despite being home to just 14 percent of its population. In fact, the report from Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy Program showed 90 percent of the fastest-growing economies now lie outside the U.S. and Western Europe.
Study co-author Alan Berube said Houston’s $311 billion economy benefited from high oil and gas prices and a relatively strong housing market. To maintain growth, the area should continue to look for ways to diversify, he said.
Berube cited Las Vegas, which ranked near the bottom on the report, as a region overly reliant on a single industry, gambling. When that suffered, it dragged down the entire economy.
Despite the disparities in growth globally, the report found widespread agreement that the global economy remains in need of mending. Jobs and income had yet to surpass pre-recession levels in more than half of the areas studied.
Houston was one of the few North American metros in which both income and employment grew “much faster” than the year before.
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Top 20 cities based on per-capita GDP
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20. Los Angeles, Calif.: $52,391 (David McNew / Getty Images)
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19. Buffalo, NY: $52,454
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18. Munich, Germany: $54,078
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17. Calgary, Canada: $54,080 (Fung.leo / Flickr)
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16. Paris, France: $54,430 (REMY DE LA MAUVINIERE / AP)
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15. Des Moines, Iowa: $55,335 (CHARLIE NEIBERGALL / AP)
For the Top 15 cities by GDP, you misinterpretted figure 1 if I’m not mistaken. The graph is of the top 200 by GDP, with intermittent names shown. While Houston is the 3rd name shown there are likely other cities not named on the bottom bar. In the paragragh explaining it for example They define NYC metro as being number 2 being on par with South Korea. NYC is not named in Figure 1, but in the GDP per Capita, it is listed.
Doug, the slides show the cities with the highest domestic product and highest domestic product per capita. It doesn’t show the largest growth, which is where Houston ranked 19th.
For the Top 15 cities by GDP, you misinterpretted figure 1 if I’m not mistaken. The graph is of the top 200 by GDP, with intermittent names shown. While Houston is the 3rd name shown there are likely other cities not named on the bottom bar. In the paragragh explaining it for example They define NYC metro as being number 2 being on par with South Korea. NYC is not named in Figure 1, but in the GDP per Capita, it is listed.
I agree with Ivar. The slidedeck is misleading. The article says Houston was 19th in global growth. So what is the true metric shown for the slides??
Doug, the slides show the cities with the highest domestic product and highest domestic product per capita. It doesn’t show the largest growth, which is where Houston ranked 19th.