"Houston is the American City of the Future," Leads Texas in Global Cities Report

Published Nov 03, 2020 by Maggie Martin

Houston is one of the best cities in the world - and No. 1 in Texas, according to Resonance Consultancy

The consulting giant, which specializes in tourism, real estate and economic development, released its sixth annual World's Best Cities report last week. Houston came in at No. 39, down from No. 32 last year. Other Texas cities on the list include Austin (No. 54) and Dallas (No. 50).

The report scored the world’s best cities based on six metrics: Place, Product, Programming, People, Prosperity and Promotion. Resonance highlighted two of these rankings for Houston. The city came in at No. 31 on Promotion, which refers to the quality of stories, references and recommendations shared online about a city. Houston also came in at No. 38 for Product, or the city's key institutions, attractions and infrastructure.

In its description, Resonance deemed Houston as the American city of the future, highlighting several of Houston's characteristics that make it stand out from other global cities, including Houston's diversity, population growth and dining. The report also called out Houston as home to the fourth-largest number of Fortune 500 companies in the world, as well as its place on the lists' GDP Per Capita subcategory (No. 10). Resonance also highlighted the Houston Spaceport, a hub for innovation, education, and commercial spaceflight, as the future of the region's space industry.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged us and our cities in ways none of us have ever experienced before," said Chris Fair, Resonance Consultancy president and CEO. "It’s caused us to reexamine and rethink the way we’ll want to live, work and play in the future. If there’s one thing that social distancing has taught us, it’s that the shared spaces we were asked to close and avoid—from parks to restaurants to sporting venues, museums and galleries—are what we cherish most about the cities we live in or love to visit. The planet’s large cities—with MSA populations of more than a million people—face imminent and myriad challenges that will define their next decade and beyond."

The global ranking comes a couple of months after Houston ranked No. 11 for the second year in a row on the America’s 100 Best Cities list, also produced by Resonance.

See the full list of World's Best Cities by Rsonance Consultancy.