Meanwhile, Dubai has climbed an impressive ten places from last year to 32nd, but still however remains seven spots below its high of 25th on the 2015 index. Of all of the cities assessed, Abu Dhabi has recorded the highest five-year gain. Here, Abu Dhabi (69th on the primary index) has rocketed up the rankings, gaining a remarkable 30 places on last year to land in at 20th worldwide, after having spent the past four years static around the 50 mark.

Measuring the future potential of cities, the outlook index is compiled by assessing more than a dozen key indicators and averaging their rate of change across each metric using the past five years’ data, before then projecting a decade ahead. Abu Dhabi, however, has dramatically jumped Dubai on the report’s ‘outlook’ index.

Kearney has released its latest business and human capital focused Global Cities Report, with Dubai holding onto its top 30 ranking among 130 cities assessed worldwide on categories including business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience and political engagement. Global strategy and management consultancy A.T. Kearney’s latest global cities outlook index.

Kearney global cities index