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Released this October, the MasterCard Emerging Markets Index highlights the 65 key cities that are driving growth worldwide. These countries are ranked according to their index score, derived by a panel of experts in the global economy. The report also features a look into specific factors that make each city important for corporations and others to consider. This index examines the economic trends that distinguish these 65 cities from others around the world.

This report emphasizes two compelling trends that have impacted the global economy and are critical to the development of emerging markets. The first being increased concentration of global commerce into urban areas/centers. Both demographic and economically, people and businesses have migrated to the cities of the world. The second trend is the globalization of capital, talent, information, technology, and even intellectual property. Borders and barriers have been eliminated as the world has integrated itself into one seamless economy.

As for the results, Shanghai, China is the top ranked metropolitan area to contribute to economic growth. Shanghai has an index value of 66.01, while Beijing follows in a close second with a value of 62.35. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at all of this data from a geographic perspective, to see if there were any interesting correlations.

To do so, I simply geocoded the data and uploaded the CSV file with the latitude and longitude measurements into Finder! I then proceeded to export this dataset into Maker! so that I could visualize the data. Being able to see the data on a map instantly shows a clustering of the top ranked cities. The following map uses graduated symbols correlated with the Index Value; as you can see that the Asia Pacific region dominates the Emerging Markets Index. Another notable area is in Eastern Europe, where cities like Budapest, Warsaw, and Moscow can be found having a significant impact on worldwide growth.

The Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa region represents over half of the study’s 65 cities. The primary reason for this is the dominance of China in the rankings; of the top 30 cities, 15 are Chinese. This map is zoomed in on China and highlights China’s impact on the global economy.

Please visit Finder! And Maker! to view all of the datasets on the Emerging Markets Index.

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