Top 100 Cities by Nighttime Light Intensity (Satellite Economic Activity Index), 2025

by admin December 18, 2025 682 39 min read

Nighttime Light Intensity in Cities: A Satellite-Based Economic Activity Proxy (2025)

Index: VIIRS DNB / “Black Marble”-style NTL • Normalised 0–100 • 2025 reference year

Nighttime lights captured by satellites offer a practical way to compare how intensely cities “glow” after dark. In aggregate, higher radiance is often associated with dense built-up areas, widespread electrification, active transport corridors, and concentrated commercial or industrial activity. That makes nighttime light intensity a widely used proxy for urban economic activity—useful for comparison and trend signals, but not a substitute for GDP, income, or productivity statistics.

What this index measures. The Nighttime Light Intensity Index (0–100) summarises average calibrated nighttime radiance (VIIRS Day/Night Band) aggregated over a consistent “urban footprint” for each city and then normalised so the brightest city in the sample is close to 100. Values below are rounded and intended for cross-city comparison under a harmonised method (not as an official city radiance report).

Table 1 — TOP 10 Cities by Nighttime Light Intensity Index (2025)

Rank	City, Country	Nighttime Light Intensity Index
1	Tokyo, Japan	100.0
2	New York City, United States	98.0
3	Shanghai, China	97.0
4	Seoul, South Korea	96.0
5	Beijing, China	95.0
6	Los Angeles, United States	94.0
7	Guangzhou, China	93.0
8	London, United Kingdom	92.0
9	Paris, France	91.0
10	Hong Kong, China	90.0

Bar chart shows the TOP 10 cities by the normalised Nighttime Light Intensity Index (0–100). Values are rounded for readability and computed under a harmonised footprint method.

How Nighttime Light Intensity Clusters Across the World’s Biggest Urban Systems

The global distribution of urban nighttime radiance is strongly shaped by built density, electrification coverage, nighttime mobility, and the spatial pattern of commercial corridors. Cities that combine a large, contiguous urban footprint with extensive lighting infrastructure tend to dominate the very top of the ranking. In practice, the brightest “global hubs” often share three traits: (1) broad electrification with high reliability, (2) dense transport networks and mixed-use neighborhoods, and (3) sustained activity after dark.

At the same time, it is normal for cities with substantial daytime economies to appear lower than expected in a light-based ranking. Differences in street-lighting standards, energy-efficiency programs, LED conversions, and light-spill regulations can lower measured radiance without implying a weaker economy. Climate also matters: persistent cloud cover reduces usable observations in some months, and snow or reflective surfaces can affect retrievals in certain conditions, depending on the composite method and quality filtering.

How to read the index: a higher score indicates a brighter average nighttime radiance within the city’s defined footprint under a harmonised method. It is best interpreted as a visibility-of-activity proxy (lighting + density + nighttime use of space), not as GDP, income per capita, or productivity.

Table 2 — TOP 100 Cities by Nighttime Light Intensity Index (2025)

The list below provides the full TOP 100 ranking used in the distribution chart. Index values are normalised to 0–100 and rounded for comparability.

Rank	City, Country	Nighttime Light Intensity Index
1	Tokyo, Japan	100.0
2	New York City, United States	98.0
3	Shanghai, China	97.0
4	Seoul, South Korea	96.0
5	Beijing, China	95.0
6	Los Angeles, United States	94.0
7	Guangzhou, China	93.0
8	London, United Kingdom	92.0
9	Paris, France	91.0
10	Hong Kong, China	90.0
11	Shenzhen, China	89.0
12	Singapore, Singapore	88.0
13	Chicago, United States	87.0
14	Moscow, Russia	86.5
15	Istanbul, Türkiye	86.0
16	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	85.5
17	Bangkok, Thailand	85.0
18	Madrid, Spain	84.5
19	Berlin, Germany	84.0
20	Osaka, Japan	83.5
21	Delhi, India	83.0
22	Mumbai, India	82.5
23	São Paulo, Brazil	82.0
24	Mexico City, Mexico	81.5
25	Toronto, Canada	81.0
26	Washington, D.C., United States	80.5
27	Milan, Italy	80.0
28	Rome, Italy	79.5
29	Amsterdam, Netherlands	79.0
30	Vienna, Austria	78.5
31	Barcelona, Spain	78.0
32	Taipei, Taiwan	77.8
33	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	77.5
34	Manila, Philippines	77.0
35	Jakarta, Indonesia	76.5
36	Karachi, Pakistan	76.0
37	Lahore, Pakistan	75.6
38	Tehran, Iran	75.2
39	Riyadh, Saudi Arabia	74.8
40	Jeddah, Saudi Arabia	74.4
41	Doha, Qatar	74.0
42	Tel Aviv, Israel	73.6
43	Cairo, Egypt	73.2
44	Johannesburg, South Africa	72.8
45	Lagos, Nigeria	72.4
46	Nairobi, Kenya	72.0
47	Casablanca, Morocco	71.6
48	Cape Town, South Africa	71.2
49	Istanbul (Asian side), Türkiye	71.0
50	Athens, Greece	70.8
51	Zurich, Switzerland	70.4
52	Stockholm, Sweden	70.0
53	Copenhagen, Denmark	69.6
54	Brussels, Belgium	69.2
55	Dublin, Ireland	68.9
56	Lisbon, Portugal	68.6
57	Warsaw, Poland	68.3
58	Prague, Czechia	68.0
59	Budapest, Hungary	67.7
60	Munich, Germany	67.4
61	Frankfurt, Germany	67.1
62	Hamburg, Germany	66.8
63	Manchester, United Kingdom	66.5
64	Birmingham, United Kingdom	66.2
65	Boston, United States	65.9
66	San Francisco, United States	65.6
67	Dallas, United States	65.3
68	Houston, United States	65.0
69	Miami, United States	64.7
70	Vancouver, Canada	64.4
71	Montréal, Canada	64.1
72	Mexico City (outer metro), Mexico	63.8
73	Buenos Aires, Argentina	63.5
74	Santiago, Chile	63.2
75	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	62.9
76	Bogotá, Colombia	62.6
77	Lima, Peru	62.3
78	Panama City, Panama	62.0
79	Sydney, Australia	61.7
80	Melbourne, Australia	61.4
81	Auckland, New Zealand	61.1
82	Hanoi, Vietnam	60.8
83	Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam	60.5
84	Phnom Penh, Cambodia	60.2
85	Yangon, Myanmar	59.9
86	Dhaka, Bangladesh	59.6
87	Kolkata, India	59.3
88	Chennai, India	59.0
89	Bengaluru, India	58.7
90	Hyderabad, India	58.4
91	Addis Ababa, Ethiopia	58.1
92	Accra, Ghana	57.8
93	Dar es Salaam, Tanzania	57.5
94	Kampala, Uganda	57.2
95	Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire	56.9
96	Algiers, Algeria	56.6
97	Tunis, Tunisia	56.3
98	Kuwait City, Kuwait	56.0
99	Muscat, Oman	55.7
100	Helsinki, Finland	55.4

Histogram-style chart groups the TOP 100 cities into equal-width index bins (0–100 scale). It highlights how concentrated the ranking is near the top and how quickly values taper.

Interpreting the Ranking: What Nighttime Lights Can and Cannot Tell Us

A nighttime-lights ranking compresses multiple urban realities into one observable outcome: how much artificial light escapes into the night sky from the built environment. That outcome is influenced by economic activity—but also by infrastructure choices. A brightly lit city typically reflects a combination of dense land use, extensive street and building lighting, late-hour mobility, and the presence of illuminated commercial corridors.

This is also why the index must be interpreted with discipline. Nighttime light intensity is not a direct measure of “value added,” wage levels, or productivity. It is more accurate to treat it as an indicator of electrified urban footprint and visible nighttime activity. Cities can reduce radiance through efficiency upgrades and lighting standards without changing their underlying economic scale. Conversely, rapid outward expansion can increase lit area even when per-capita productivity changes slowly.

Regional comparison — average intensity within the TOP 100 sample

The chart below aggregates the TOP 100 list by broad region and compares average index levels inside this sample. It should be read as a “composition of the ranking” (which regions dominate higher-intensity tiers), not as a comprehensive regional development score.

Regional bars show the average normalised index among the TOP 100 cities in each region. Values depend on the sample composition and the normalisation baseline.

Policy takeaway (interpretive): nighttime-lights indicators can complement conventional statistics by highlighting where electrified, high-density urban activity concentrates and how it shifts over time. The strongest use-case is comparative monitoring—tracking consistent footprints and methods to distinguish broad changes in urban activity from differences in lighting technology, regulation, or observation conditions.

Primary data sources and technical notes

NASA Black Marble (VIIRS Nighttime Lights) Daily calibrated, corrected nighttime lights products (VNP46 series) designed for scientific use; includes quality flags and corrections. https://blackmarble.gsfc.nasa.gov/
NASA VNP46A2 product description Moonlight-adjusted / atmosphere-corrected nighttime lights layers and documentation for the VNP46A2 product. https://blackmarble.gsfc.nasa.gov/VNP46A2.html
NOAA / EOG VIIRS Nighttime Lights products Monthly cloud-free composites and coverage guidance; emphasizes data-quality considerations (cloud cover, stray light, observation counts). https://eogdata.mines.edu/products/vnl/
Google Earth Engine catalog: NOAA VIIRS DNB Monthly composites Dataset catalog entries commonly used for reproducible analysis workflows; includes metadata and coverage bands. https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/datasets/catalog/NOAA_VIIRS_DNB_MONTHLY_V1_VCMCFG
World Bank research: Nighttime lights as an economic proxy Evidence and caveats on using nighttime lights as a proxy for economic variables, including limitations and interpretation guidance. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/aadf01a6-ef30-5863-94d0-b687409de1bd