China Academy of Social Science (CASS), and the Institute for Social and Cultural Research, Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) have released a study titled '2016 China (Macao) Urban Competitiveness'. The study rates the economic competitiveness of Macao in 2015 at 0.447, with the city ranking 9^th among the 294 cities of prefectural level and above in China. However, the index of competitiveness increased to 0.041, ranking the city 220^th, which although it was an improvement compared to the 232^nd position in 2014 was still low on the list. Macao's index of competitiveness in overall efficiency, however, was as high as a full 1, ranking the city first.

The index of competitiveness for a livable environment was 0.596 in 2015, dropping 16 positions year on year to 36^th, while the index of competitiveness for a business-benefiting environment was 0.398, a decrease of 4 positions year on year to 32^nd. The index of sustainable competitiveness was 0.801, ranking it 5^th, following Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen. Sustainable competitiveness covers six categories, four of which are outstanding – urban competitiveness in harmony and whole-range urban competitiveness both rank 2^nd nationally, while urban competitiveness in ecology and culture rank 4^th and 5^th, respectively. For urban competitiveness in knowledge and information, Macao ranks 39^th and 17^th, respectively.

The index system of urban competitiveness is composed of an overall economic competitiveness index that measures current short-term competitiveness and a sustainable competitiveness index that measures future long-term competitiveness. The former comprises competitiveness in overall increase and over efficiency; the latter consists of urban competitiveness in knowledge, urban competitiveness in harmony, urban competitiveness in ecology, urban competitiveness in culture, whole-range urban competitiveness and urban competitiveness information.