Astana, Almaty outpace CIS and Central Asian capitals in Global Cities Index 2026
Astana and Almaty have entered the top 300 among the world’s 1,000 largest cities in the Global Cities Index 2026, compiled by Oxford Economics, Qazinform News Agency reports.
According to the ranking, Almaty placed 265th and Astana 281st.
In human capital, Almaty ranked 66th, ahead of Hong Kong, Barcelona, Warsaw and Ankara, while Astana took 98th place.
Overall, Astana and Almaty were positioned above Moscow (313th) and Baku (323rd). Other CIS capitals ranked lower are Yerevan at 514th, Minsk at 604th, and Chisinau at 619th. In Central Asia, Tashkent ranked 343rd, Bishkek 461st, Ashgabat 668th, and Dushanbe 672nd.
Major Asian and Middle Eastern cities ranked significantly higher: Seoul at 38th, Riyadh at 50th, and Abu Dhabi at 84th.
Top 10 Cities
Oxford Economics noted that the upper tier of the index remains dominated by North American and European cities. New York retained first place, followed by London and Paris. Seattle, San Francisco, Dublin, Boston, San Jose, Tokyo and Zurich are also in the top 10.
How the Index is Compiled
The Global Cities Index evaluates 1,000 cities worldwide across five dimensions: economy, human capital, quality of life, environment, and governance.
Indicators include economic performance, education and labor markets, income and housing costs, safety, environmental conditions, and institutional quality.
Earlier, it was reported that Astana and Almaty improved their rankings in the Global Financial Centres Index.