In its recently released report, Urban world: Cities and the rise of the consuming class, the McKinsey Global Institutefinds that the 600 cities making the largest contribution to a higher global GDP—the City 600—will generate nearly 65 percent of world economic growth by 2025. Within the City 600, over 440 cities in emerging economies will account for close to half of overall growth. By 2025, one billion people will enter the global consuming class, who will have incomes high enough to classify them as significant consumers of goods and services, and around 600 million of them will live in the Emerging 440.

These urban trends will present new challenges to policy makers in both developed and developing countries. For those in the developed world, goals will need to center on maintaining healthy rates of growth through higher productivity, new business investments, and enhanced links with emerging regions, while developing countries would need to focus on managing growth to improve economies of scale and create appropriate conditions for sustainable economic performance.

The full report can be accessed from the McKinsey Global Institute website.