I was just poking around on the internet and found an interesting ranking of world cities. Here are the top 20 ranked first by GDP and then next population (2010 rankings). Best is to be high on the GDP list with a low population ranking. Atlanta does VERY well in this regard. Eight of the top 20 cities (in GDP) are located in the US. Atlanta and Houston not only are wealthy and have relatively low populations and also provide a low cost of living and lots of space for growth.
City | GDP Rank | Population Rank |
Tokyo | 1 | 1 |
New York | 2 | 6 |
Los Angeles | 3 | 12 |
Chicago | 4 | 25 |
London | 5 | 28 |
Paris | 6 | 20 |
Osaka | 7 | 17 |
Mexico City | 8 | 5 |
Sao Paulo | 9 | 3 |
Washington | 10 | 42 |
Boston | 11 | 41 |
Buenos Aires | 12 | 11 |
Moscow | 13 | 19 |
Hong Kong | 14 | 31 |
Atlanta | 15 | 39 |
San Francisco | 16 | 46 |
Houston | 17 | 40 |
Munich | 18 | 35 |
Seoul | 19 | 22 |
Frankfurt | 20 | 64 |
Source: Foreign Policy Global Cities Index 2010. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/node/373401.