Omaha is the 54th “most important” city in North America and the 49th most important in the United States. That’s according to the mid-2025 report of the Global City Importance Model as reported by Justin O’Beirne.
The model scores urban areas according to their relative importance globally. It uses 40 regularly updated data sources across four dimensions (economic, political, cultural, and demographic) to calculate importance, with economic output and international geopolitical influence comprising the largest scoring factors.
The 10 most important cities in the world are 1. New York, 2. Washington, 3. Beijing, 4. London, 5. Tokyo, 6. Shanghai, 7. Paris, 8. Los Angeles, 9. San Francisco, 10. Shenzhen-Guangzhou-Dongg.
The 10 most important cities in North America are 1. New York, 2. Washington, 3. Los Angeles, 4. San Francisco Bay Area, 5. Chicago, 6. Boston, 7. Toronto, 8. Houston, 9, Dallas-Fort Worth, 10. Atlanta.
The model categorizes cities into several tiers. Omaha is in tier 3C, which is a city of “high importance regionally.” Tier 1 cities are “global cities,” while Tier 2 is “major city.” Tier 4 is “subregional city.”
The five cities immediately ranked higher than Omaha are Edmonton; Memphis; Oklahoma City; Louisville; and Buffalo.
The five cities ranked just below Omaha are Honolulu, Greensboro-Winston-Salem; Birmingham; Akron-Canton; and Rochester, N.Y.
Here are some other cities in our region with their North American rankings including Omaha:
#17 Minneapolis – St. Paul
#19 Denver
#25 St. Louis
#36 Kansas City
#54 Omaha
#63 Tulsa
#70 Des Moines, Iowa
#78 Colorado Springs
#81 Madison, Wis.
#88 Lincoln
#98 Wichita, Kan.
#129 Fort Collins, Colo.
#134 Springfield, Mo.
#136 Quad Cities area (Iowa and Illinois)
#144 Topeka, Kan.
Just for fun, here are the most important cities in a few select regions of the world:
Europe = London
European Union = Paris
East Asia = Beijing
Latin America = São Paulo
Middle East = Istanbul
South Asia = Mumbai
Oceana = Sydney
Sub-Saharan Africa = Johannesburg
Russia & Central Asia = Moscow
Photo by Brad Williams
