# Worlds LARGEST Cities - by office space volume



## Jaye101 (Feb 16, 2005)

Nobody noticed that Hong Kong is so freakin low on the list!


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## i_am_hydrogen (Dec 9, 2004)

wjfox2002 said:


> Despite what many forumers here think, London actually has a massive amount of density in its city centre - it's a vast ocean of 5-10 storey buildings, with dozens of enormous groundscrapers and midrises. Although lacking much height, it still has an enormous amount of floorspace, spread over a huge area.
> 
> The City of London employs over 300,000 people in financial services, and Canary Wharf has over 60,000.


Hey, I recognize that London is a heavy, heavy hitter.


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## lakegz (Oct 23, 2003)

This list is laughable. 
Los Angeles, with office buildings all over the basin and valley is way too low for this to be taken too seriously. 
Like another forumer stated, Downtown LA by itself has 40 million sq feet of Office Space.


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## i_am_hydrogen (Dec 9, 2004)

Here's another source of office space--but only for US cities.

http://www.colliersparrish.com/newsletters/NA.Office.pdf

New York obliterates every other city.


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## James Foong (May 12, 2005)

I suspect the list is not comprehensive enough to cover the whole major cities. Don't Colliers has offices in barcelona n kuala lumpur? Even kl can easily beat dubai in current office space vol.


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## JayT (Sep 11, 2002)

hydrogen said:


> Here's another source of office space--but only for US cities.
> 
> http://www.colliersparrish.com/newsletters/NA.Office.pdf
> 
> New York obliterates every other city.


Wow Los Angeles isn't that big is it. Its beaten by many cities including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, New York, San Francisco, Philidelphia, Seattle and Washington DC.

Also a good indicator of how a cities economy is fairing is the amount of space being taken up.

Pity its not in Square Metres though. Its funny, America is one of the biggest countries in the world and is one of the only ones still using imperial measurement - I think there is an African country still using it too.


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## bnmaddict (Jan 6, 2005)

spyguy999 said:


> I'm surprised that Paris is adding so much.


I'm not surprised at all, there's loads of huge low-rise office building being built in Paris:
- Around the F. Mitterand library in eastern Paris, loads of low-rises going up
- Near Balard (south western Paris), loads of office buildings being built
- In La Défense (there's about 3.500.000 sqm of office space right now in LD)
- Near the "Stade de France", huge developpments

The only problem for me is that they tend to choose huge low-rises developpments rather than scrapers...


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## bustero (Dec 20, 2004)

My experience with Colliers research is that they are probably only looking at grade a or grade B office buildings. I'm used to seeing their reports on manila and I know how innaccurate it actually is, at best it mimics the market to a certain degree. The list is also reflective of how well statistics are kept by each city. The better the statistics the more reflective the list of what's available. That's why you do not see as many developing nation cities high on the list even if their populations are higher. Granted that work habits dictate less density for western cities in general ( I think the average american has about 10 -15 sq.m. of office space per person versus 3- 5 for most developing nations), the differences are too great for some of the cities to be realistic. A good case would be San Paolo which surely has more commercial office space than 9 million sq.m.. I'm sure their many small buildings which may make up the actual bulk of the office space market are not on the colliers radar.


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## James Foong (May 12, 2005)

I think you hv juz sum up pretty clear here. Sometimes, colliers people might not getting the right source. Its might be outdated, and colliers shld verify it properly. Misinformed can do alot of damage.


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## Desven (May 18, 2004)

ChicagoSkyline said:


> NYC, Chicago, Tokyo, HK easily beat the shit out of those german cities,lol! Your data seem a bit whacky and laughable....


it seems that u never have been to Germany,so u can't say something like that,cuz u have no idea!


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## tuckerman (Aug 8, 2005)

This office space list shows three things of note, even with the many possible flaws that the measurement data may have. First, the relationship between the skyline and office space, can be very deceptive. For example the skylines of Sao Paulo and Singapore and Hong Kong are very impressive, but a very high percentage of the high buildings are residential. In the USA one sees that in Miami. Washington DC, which effectively has no high rise buildings (though there are some in Roslyn, Tysons Corner, etc), has an enormous amount of office space. Second, the lists (both international and the US lists) clearly show the main functions of the cities involved. Washington is all government business; Atlanta is all corporate, NYC is all business and corporate, therefore they have very high office space demands. If we were looking at industrial space, or warehouse spaces these lists would look very different. Finally, it is very remarkable, that with few exceptions, in the USA the suburban office space far exceeds that found in the so-called downtowns. Urban sprawl is not just about housing and malls.


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## NovaWolverine (Dec 28, 2004)

I agree, while we all hate sprawl, it evolved from a feeling of seclusion and safety, then schools, and now lower costs among other things.


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## Nick in Atlanta (Nov 5, 2003)

@Tuckerman: Pretty accurate analysis.


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## RafflesCity (Sep 11, 2002)

tuckerman said:


> For example the skylines of Sao Paulo and Singapore and Hong Kong are very impressive, but a very high percentage of the high buildings are residential.


Disagree about Singapore's main skyline having a very high percentage of residential buildings.

In Singapore, every highrise in that pic is commercial.










In future, residential towers will become a part of the skyline.

The list looks about right to me.


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## tuckerman (Aug 8, 2005)

One technical point that may help explain some of the strange discrepancies in the original global list where German cities did so well is that their offices tend to be in the central city. American cities are distorted in this list because it evidently used the core (downtown) listings when they made their calculations. If you convert square meters to square feet and review the American list this soon becomes apparent. Many US cities would jump way up on the list if their metro office space was included. Obviously NYC and Chicago are high on the list because of their strong downtown office blocks. They may be among the few big cities in the US where the downtown office space exceeds the suburban.


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## tuckerman (Aug 8, 2005)

Raffles City

I agree if you show that part of Singapore, but when you look over all of Singapore, it is a pretty vertical city. I spent two weeks there this year staying on floor 28 of the Grand Copthorne and had a great overview of Singapore in all directions including the area you show. From an American perspective it is quite impressive and high buildings extend in all directions.


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## cello1974 (May 20, 2003)

lotrfan55345 said:


> Sooo, are you insinuating the western hemisphere is the world?


Rubbish. But to call itself capital of the world, it should have influence in the entire world, not only in Asia! NYC or London DO have influence in the whole world, so they are world capitals! :sleepy:


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## RafflesCity (Sep 11, 2002)

tuckerman said:


> Raffles City
> 
> I agree if you show that part of Singapore, but when you look over all of Singapore, it is a pretty vertical city. I spent two weeks there this year staying on floor 28 of the Grand Copthorne and had a great overview of Singapore in all directions including the area you show. From an American perspective it is quite impressive and high buildings extend in all directions.


yes glad you liked the experience.

However most people on this forum or indeed tourists would imagine Singapore as the pic I posted, as that part of the skyline is practically the only pic shown, and thats what most people visualise as the skyline.

Anyway that cluster in the financial area shown is probably similar in size to the Sydney/Houston clusters so I agree with the results.


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## Bunny (Apr 15, 2004)

cello1974 said:


> ^^ Yes, it is by far the biggest metro area, but not the world's capital! Actually, Tokyo's influence is rather small in the Western hemisphere, so it cannot be the World's capital!


I didn't say it's the world's capital...


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## cello1974 (May 20, 2003)

Okay, let's forget that discussion then...


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## JayT (Sep 11, 2002)

I have to agree with the Europeans in this thread. I mean look at the financial power of countries like Germany, France, UK, - I think even The Netherlands 'craps' all over Australia in terms of its financial and corporate power and it has a similar population. 

Brussels is the traditional seat of political power for the EU so naturally it would have heaps of office space - same as Washington DC.

I do have to agree with many of you that many cities seem to be missing. I know that Canberra is Australia's fourth largest city in terms of office space and its missing so there are probably heaps more, Bangkok, Osaka (Kansai), Manchester and some other large English Cities. I could name many that are not on that list which should be there.

I am just the messenger and thought that it was an interesting list - don't shoot me :runaway:


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## _tictac_ (Jan 6, 2003)

ChicagoSkyline said:


> Where do you working, how da hell do I need to know about it, that is your biz! BTW, from the way you talk, you must be working on the low rises that dominates Paris. We da chicagoan working on da supertalls can careless at your lows since we got great views up here on the 100s. BTW, how can you say that office space volume can't be transform by the skyscraper floors. You say that caz european lame ass cities don't have supertalls so you want to change a bit to fit your low life,lol! Come on! if you want to count on the horizontal occupancy by the office space and warehouses/factory by area of city. I gurantee you that NYC and Chicago is on the world's top 3! Of course again, London and Paris certain has more office space volume then those german cities due to the densities of two! but don't get me wrong, you actually think that european densities in small block size area can compare to chicago loop? I still don't see da facts proving the biased list from the thread starter! :bash:


Such arrogance, such ignorance.
Way to represent your city around here. :|

Chicago is not the capital of the world, that is a fact.
Get used to it.

Dumbass.


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## ChicagoSkyline (Feb 24, 2005)

_tictac_ said:


> Such arrogance, such ignorance.
> Way to represent your city around here. :|
> 
> Chicago is not the capital of the world, that is a fact.
> ...



LOL,Call me da dumb one so are u, moron! I never say chicago is the capital of the world, get your fact st8t bit9ch! BTW, what were u saying again! :bash:


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## Nouvellecosse (Jun 4, 2005)

Now that I think about it, there really is something queer about this list. I just can't bring myself to believe that Brussels has more office space than Houston, LA, and Sydney combined, or Singapore, Atlanta, and Hong Kong combined. I know that London and Paris have a huge spread of lowrise office buildings, but where is Brussels putting all of its?


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## Shawn (Nov 12, 2002)

ChicagoSkyline, from one American to another, please shut up. There is absolutely no way that Chicago has more office space than the whole of Germany, you should be embarrassed for typing such bullshit. I'm embarrassed for you.

Stop further reinforcing the negative stereotypes Europeans have about American ignorance.


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## bnmaddict (Jan 6, 2005)

ChicagoSkyline said:


> Where do you working, how da hell do I need to know about it, that is your biz! BTW, from the way you talk, you must be working on the low rises that dominates Paris. We da chicagoan working on da supertalls can careless at your lows since we got great views up here on the 100s. BTW, how can you say that office space volume can't be transform by the skyscraper floors. You say that caz european lame ass cities don't have supertalls so you want to change a bit to fit your low life,lol! Come on! if you want to count on the horizontal occupancy by the office space and warehouses/factory by area of city. I gurantee you that NYC and Chicago is on the world's top 3! Of course again, London and Paris certain has more office space volume then those german cities due to the densities of two! but don't get me wrong, you actually think that european densities in small block size area can compare to chicago loop? I still don't see da facts proving the biased list from the thread starter! :bash:



Hmmmm... What's the most stupid thing in this post???

"BTW, from the way you talk, you must be working on the low rises that dominates Paris" *-> Nope, I'm working in offices behind the world famous Opera Garnier, in Paris' city center, 2 km away from the Louvre.*

"we got great views up here on the 100s" *-> Only Sears has more than 100 floors, I highly doubt that most of the Chicagoans work in the small top floors of Sears tower*

"BTW, how can you say that office space volume can't be transform by the skyscraper floors. You say that caz european lame ass cities don't have supertalls so you want to change a bit to fit your low life,lol!" *-> Someone has to explain me the meaning of this sentence.*

"if you want to count on the horizontal occupancy by the office space and warehouses/factory by area of city. I gurantee you that NYC and Chicago is on the world's top 3!" *-> I must say I don't know what's the "the horizontal occupancy by the office space and warehouses/factory by area of city".*

"Of course again, London and Paris certain has more office space volume then those german cities due to the densities of two! but don't get me wrong, you actually think that european densities in small block size area can compare to chicago loop? I still don't see da facts proving the biased list from the thread starter!" *-> You haven't yet understood that behind many of those facades of XVIIIth, XIXth, and XXth centuries buildings you'll find in Paris, there are offices...*

Anyway, from the way you speak (with all those "gangsta-like" "da" and "caz"), I'm pretty sure you're about 14 and don't know a shit about the world oustide US' boundaries.


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## Justme (Sep 11, 2002)

ChicagoSkyline said:


> Where do you working, how da hell do I need to know about it, that is your biz! BTW, from the way you talk, you must be working on the low rises that dominates Paris. We da chicagoan working on da supertalls can careless at your lows since we got great views up here on the 100s. BTW, how can you say that office space volume can't be transform by the skyscraper floors. You say that caz european lame ass cities don't have supertalls so you want to change a bit to fit your low life,lol! Come on! if you want to count on the horizontal occupancy by the office space and warehouses/factory by area of city. I gurantee you that NYC and Chicago is on the world's top 3! Of course again, London and Paris certain has more office space volume then those german cities due to the densities of two! but don't get me wrong, you actually think that european densities in small block size area can compare to chicago loop? I still don't see da facts proving the biased list from the thread starter! :bash:


:lol: from the way you write and spell, I would guess the closest you get to a supertall office space in Chicago is cleaning them :rofl: Honestly, you don't show an educated stance to your debate.


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## Justme (Sep 11, 2002)

staff said:


> That is really encouraging the stereotype of Americans - knowing nothing about the world outside the US borders.


Please don't judge Americans though from this idiot or others like him. This forum alone shows many Americans with great knowledge of international affairs.

It also shows many people from other parts of the world, whether it be Canada, Asia, Australia or Europe with equally dull thought processes such as ChicagoSkyline's.


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## caw123 (Jan 5, 2003)

ChicagoSkyline said:


> LOL,Call me da dumb one so are u, moron! I never say chicago is the capital of the world, get your fact st8t bit9ch! BTW, what were u saying again! :bash:


What are you? 11?


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## pottebaum (Sep 11, 2004)

Oh my. Shut up, Chicagoskyline. I consider myself to be a Chicago-forumer, and really, I'm sorry about this.


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## bnmaddict (Jan 6, 2005)

pottebaum said:


> Oh my. Shut up, Chicagoskyline. I consider myself to be a Chicago-forumer, and really, I'm sorry about this.


Don't worry! It takes much more than some posts and forumers on those forums to change or comfort the image we have of a country!

I've been posting on those forums for more than one year, and I still love Britain and the British, that's the best proof!


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## London_2006 (Feb 9, 2003)

ChicagoSkyline said:


> Where do you working, how da hell do I need to know about it, that is your biz! BTW, from the way you talk, you must be working on the low rises that dominates Paris. We da chicagoan working on da supertalls can careless at your lows since we got great views up here on the 100s. BTW, how can you say that office space volume can't be transform by the skyscraper floors. You say that caz european lame ass cities don't have supertalls so you want to change a bit to fit your low life,lol! Come on! if you want to count on the horizontal occupancy by the office space and warehouses/factory by area of city. I gurantee you that NYC and Chicago is on the world's top 3! Of course again, London and Paris certain has more office space volume then those german cities due to the densities of two! but don't get me wrong, you actually think that european densities in small block size area can compare to chicago loop? I still don't see da facts proving the biased list from the thread starter! :bash:


 :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:


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## SHiRO (Feb 7, 2003)

Try to keep it a bit more civil, otherwise this thread is gone.
No need for namecalling.

Thank you.


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## fairladyZ (Nov 28, 2002)

cello1974 said:


> Tokyo is what??? Are you talking seriously? Tokyo is enormous and economically within the big five, but metropolis of the wolrd???!!! Don't make me lough!


what ever you want to believe, things I have mentioned below are all true facts.

Tokyo's population is around 10 million with GDP per capital of around $70,000.

Japan is the world second largest economy(mainly concentrated in tokyo) which are even larger than that of UK,France and Italy combined.

Japan has the second largest consumption market in the world after US which is far bigger than most european country.

Japanese personal saving are largest in the world(more than 30% of the whole world) which are larger than whole of europe combined.


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## bnmaddict (Jan 6, 2005)

fairladyZ said:


> what ever you want to believe, things I have mentioned below are all true facts.
> 
> Japan is the world second largest economy(mainly concentrated in tokyo) *which are even larger than that of UK,France and Italy combined.*
> 
> Japan has the second largest consumption market in the world after US which is far bigger than most european country.


That's wrong: http://www.worldbank.org/data/databytopic/GDP.pdf 

Japan's GDP 2004 = 4.6 trillion dollars for 127 millions inh.

UK+France+Italy GDP 2004 = 5.82 trillions dollars for 180 millions inh.

You don't have to use false numbers or pretended "facts" to show that Japan and Tokyo are important...


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## Mr_ed2 (Jul 18, 2003)

Interesting chart ....

But YOU MISSED MANCHESTER!!!

How could you?!?!?!?

( I couldn't find the exact figures, but on the council website I found *Manchester has the largest office provision in the UK outside of London, with in excess of 1.8 million sq meters in total.* http://www.manchester.gov.uk/business/econfacts/property.htm 

Which should put it around the 50 mark on the list.
Cheers


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## Monkey (Oct 1, 2002)

I don't believe this list. There is no way I believe that Berlin has more office space than London and no way that Paris has more office space under construction than London or New York - let alone Shanghai!! I also don't believe that cities like Rome and Brussels have four or five times the office space of Los Angeles or Hong Kong.


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## SHiRO (Feb 7, 2003)

fairladyZ said:


> Japan is the world second largest economy(mainly concentrated in tokyo) which are even larger than that of UK,France and Italy combined.


Not true...


Japan *4,671*


United Kingdom 2,133
France 2,046 
Italy 1,680
total *5,859*

Not even close...




> Japanese personal saving are largest in the world(more than 30% of the whole world) which are larger than whole of europe combined.


I suspect this isn't true either.



Not that this has anything to do with the thread...


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## bnmaddict (Jan 6, 2005)

Monkey said:


> I don't believe this list. There is no way I believe that Berlin has more office space than London and no way that Paris has more office space under construction than London or New York - let alone Shanghai!! I also don't believe that cities like Rome and Brussels have four or five times the office space of Los Angeles or Hong Kong.


You should begin to believe it...

Do you understand that many of all those towers you see in construction in Asia (Shanghai, for exemple) are not office buildings?

Have you ever seen the south-west of the XVth arrondissement in Paris, Issy, Saint-Denis or the XIIIth arrondissements in Paris? Basically, they have been big construction sites for about 10 years and are still that for most of them... Right now, there's also two 185 m office towers in construction in La Défense, but it's nothing compared to the low-rises office buildings in construction or just finished in and around Paris.


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## Monkey (Oct 1, 2002)

^ Look I used to live in Paris, have visited maybe 30 or 40 times, and I have been to Shanghai three times in the last 18 months. Paris's contruction volume is definitely smaller than London's by a long margin. The developments you mention are sizable but there are sites like that all over London. Most of London's largest new office buildings are not skyscrapers and not even mentioned on these forums. However they are massive - larger than, say, Swiss Re in the City. New York has a very lively construction scene too - building more and taller skyscrapers than ever before in its history. And Shanghai has built vast quantities of office towers - and yes I am talking about office towers not residentials. There is no western city adding as much new space as Shanghai. The rest of the list looks skewed as well. Tell me something - do you believe that cities like Rome and Bruussels have four or fives times as much office space as Hong Kong or Los Angeles? Rome's economy is based on government and tourism. Admittedly government departments need a volume of office space but it's still small compared to financial centres. This list wants me to believe that Rome has 5 x more office space than Hong Kong and that Brussels has 12 x more office space under construction than Hong Kong. Sorry but I don't believe that at all.


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## Butcher (Dec 13, 2004)

^^I assumed that it was another joke.


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## bnmaddict (Jan 6, 2005)

Butcher said:


> ^^I assumed that it was another joke.


Well, it's not: LINK


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## firmanhadi (Aug 3, 2005)

lotrfan55345 said:


> Jakarata supposedly has more than Manila? Why is Bangkok not on the list?


 Bangkok has a sizeable commercial office market in ASEAN. I think this list is totally bogus! 

The reason they don't have Bangkok in this list is probably because Colliers does not have a presence in Thailand.


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## Chad (Oct 10, 2002)

JayT said:


> Thought this was interesting - its the worlds largest cities by office space volume. As you would expect Tokyo and New York are the biggest - but those German Cities, where do they put it all?
> 
> I've put it into an excel spread sheet and colour coded it depending on Continent.
> 
> ...


According to CB Richard Ellis.

Bangkok Office Stock at the moment stands at 7,470,000 Sq.M.









Which means on the chart above it sshould be placed at the 17th after Toronto and Before SF.


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## kenlau13 (Sep 28, 2005)

Why Singapore is bigger than HK!!!!!!!!!


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## unoh (Aug 13, 2005)

Tokyo has the largest economy in all cities of the world.

Tokyo's GRDP(gross regional domestic product) is as many as 807,300,000,000 USD (2004years).

in per capita, extends to 70,000 USD, appprocimately 

Tokyo looks like future city.

- some tokyo photos
http://kr.dcinside10.imagesearch.ya...c=off&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=3466


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## polako (Apr 7, 2005)

unoh said:


> Tokyo has the largest economy in all cities of the world.
> 
> Tokyo's GRDP(gross regional domestic product) is as many as 807,300,000,000 USD (2004years).
> 
> ...


If NYC's economy is more than $1trillion, then Tokyo's must be at least $1.5 trillion.


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## tuten (Aug 16, 2005)

I think london does pretty well...as it is the capital of a very small island


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## The Cebuano Exultor (Aug 1, 2005)

*To polako...*

Tokyo's Metropolitan Area GRDP (the entire Keihan Plain) is $ 1.315 trillion (as stated in Wikipedia)


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