In many studies that have done before, the cities in our country are classified developed/developing by using multivariate statistical tech-niqu.es. As an alternative to multivariate techniqu.es, the mentioned classi-fication could be done by using data envelopment analysis (DEA), which classifies the units in the research as efficient/inefftcient. Charnes et al. (1989) is an example ofsuch a study. in the mentioned paper, the Chinese cities are compared by their economic performance using DEA.But in such a classification, whether multivariate techniques or DEA is mor e efficient isn't known. in this study, the 73 Turkish cities will be classified by using multivariate statistical techniques and DEA, as an alternative. The question ofwhich technique is mor e suitable and which perspective will be determined in this study. By doing so we tried to help researchers who faced such problems.