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The China Core Cities & Metropolitan Area Development Index is supported by a selection of 442 data sets closely related with its theme, including statistical data, satellite remote sensing data, and internet data, from the 882 data sets which support the China Integrated City Index. Therefore, the China Core Cities & Metropolitan Area Development Index is a cutting-edge multimodal index that uses the "five senses" to analyze and measure a city's development through statistical resources of different fields.

For example, through satellite remote sensing data, we can accurately know the scale, distribution, and density of population in densely inhabited districts (DIDs), and analyze their relationship with other factors like economic development, infrastructures, social development, and ecological and environmental protection, elevating the research of metropolitan areas to a higher level.

It is worth noting that CO2 emissions data is included in the index. Through years of efforts, Cloud River Urban Research Institute has finally been able to calculate CO2 emissions of each city through satellite data analysis and geographic information system (GIS) analysis, which has increased the accuracy and depth of its analysis and evaluation on the cities' performance in pursuing high-quality development.

Another key feature of the index is that it is an analysis of 36 core cities, including four municipalities, 22 provincial capitals, five capitals of autonomous regions, and five cities with independent planning status, against the evaluation of 297 cities at the prefecture level or above across the country. Notably, four non-core cities — Suzhou (10th), Dongguan (20th), Wuxi (25th), and Foshan (27th) — are among the top 30 in the 2020 comprehensive ranking.

In 2020, the 36 core cities accounted for 39.2 percent of China's total GDP, 50.9 percent of its export volume, 50.1 percent of the total number of authorized patents, 26.6 percent of the permanent resident population, 42 percent of the population in DIDs, 67.3 percent of the total number of listed companies on the main board, 94.8 percent of the prestigious universities under the Project 985 and Project 211, 57.5 percent of the five-star hotels, and 47.5 percent of the top hospitals, according to the index. It is notable that the core cities have lead China's social and economic development.

The index mainly measures 10 major items, namely the city status, metropolitan area power, radiation ability, wide-area hub, opening and communications, business environment, innovation and entrepreneurship, ecological resources and environment, life quality and safety, as well as culture and education. It is also supported by 30 sub-items and 116 sets of index data to comprehensively evaluate the high-quality development of core cities in a science-based, systematic, and detailed manner.

What is most noteworthy about the 2020 index is that it focuses on assessing the performance of China's core cities in COVID-19 response and economic recovery. Here is an overview from the perspectives of three major items — life quality and safety, metropolitan area power, and ecological resources and environment.