São Paulo (Portuguese pronunciation: [sɐ̃w ˈpawlu] ( listen)) is a state in Brazil. It is the major industrial and economic powerhouse of the Brazilian economy. Named after Saint Paul, São Paulo has the largest population, industrial complex, and economic production in the country. It is the richest state in Brazil. The capital, São Paulo, is also the largest city in South America (and the Southern Hemisphere).
Often dubbed the "locomotive of Brazil", the state alone is responsible for 33.9% of the Brazilian GDP, being the state with the highest GDP. In addition to increased GDP, São Paulo also has the third highest Human Development Index, the second highest GDP per capita, the second lowest infant mortality rate and the fourth lowest rate of illiteracy among the states of Brazil.
With over 40 million inhabitants, São Paulo is the most populous state in Brazil and the third most populous political unit of South America, only surpassed by that country and Colombia, ahead of all other South American countries. São Paulo's capital city is ranked seventh among the largest cities on the planet and its metropolitan area, with 19,223,897 inhabitants, is also the 7th biggest in the world.
A global city (also called world city or sometimes alpha city or world center) is a city generally considered to be an important node in the global economic system. The concept comes from geography and urban studies and rests on the idea that globalization can be understood as largely created, facilitated, and enacted in strategic geographic locales according to a hierarchy of importance to the operation of the global system of finance and trade.
The most complex of these entities is the "global city", whereby the linkages binding a city have a direct and tangible effect on global affairs through socio-economic means. The use of "global city", as opposed to "megacity", was popularized by sociologist Saskia Sassen in her 1991 work, The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo though the term "world city" to describe cities that control a disproportionate amount of global business dates to at least the May 1886 description of Liverpool by The Illustrated London News. Patrick Geddes also used the term "world city" later in 1915. Cities can fall from such categorization, as in the case of cities that have become less cosmopolitan and less internationally renowned in the current era, e.g., Alexandria, Egypt; Coimbra, Portugal; Stralsund, Germany and Thessaloniki, Greece.