Economy
Booming Asian Cities Are Tugging The World's Center of Light East
The light of urban development seen from space can tell us much about the shape of the world's economy.
Economists have previously measured what they call the “economic center of gravity” of the world. It’s that theoretical point on the globe – which has been migrating particularly rapidly over the past decade – that sits at the geographic center of all the world’s countries when they’re weighted by GDP.
This map, from a report last year by the McKinsey Global Institute, traces the movement of that center of economic gravity over the past two millennia (and projected into the next 15 years). Industrialization and urbanization in Europe and America tugged the center westward starting in the 17th century. Then around 1950, this trajectory abruptly reversed, reflecting the rise of whole economies – and cities – in the East.