Urbanization is an important driver of global change associated with a set of environmental modifications that affect the introduction and distribution of invasive non-native species (species with populations transported by humans beyond their natural biogeographic range that established and are spreading in their introduced range; hereafter, invasive species). These species are recognized as a cause of large ecological and economic losses. Nevertheless, the economic impacts of these species in urban areas are still poorly understood. Here we present a synthesis of the reported economic costs of invasive species in urban areas using the global InvaCost database, and demonstrate that costs are likely underestimated. Sixty-one invasive species have been reported to cause a cumulative cost of US$ 326.7 billion in urban areas between 1965 and 2021 globally (average annual cost of US$ 5.7 billion). Class Insecta was responsible for >99 % of reported costs (US$ 324.4 billion), followed by Aves (US$ 1.4 billion), and Magnoliopsida (US$ 494 million). The reported costs were highly uneven with the sum of the five costliest species representing 80 % of reported costs. Most reported costs were a result of damage (77.3 %), principally impacting public and social welfare (77.9 %) and authorities-stakeholders (20.7 %), and were almost entirely in terrestrial environments (99.9 %). We found costs reported for 24 countries. Yet, there are 73 additional countries with no reported costs, but with occurrences of invasive species that have reported costs in other countries. Although covering a relatively small area of the Earth's surface, urban areas represent about 15 % of the total reported costs attributed to invasive species. These results highlight the conservative nature of the estimates and impacts, revealing important biases present in the evaluation and publication of reported data on costs. We emphasize the urgent need for more focused assessments of invasive species' economic impacts in urban areas.

CEFE Univ Montpellier CNRS EPHE IRD Univ Paul Valéry Montpellier 3 Montpellier France

Centre of Geographical Studies Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning University of Lisbon Rua Branca Edmée Marques 1600 276 Lisboa Portugal; Associate Laboratory Terra Portugal

Czech Academy of Sciences Institute of Botany Department of Invasion Ecology CZ 25243 Průhonice Czech Republic

Department of Biology and Biochemistry University of Houston Houston TX USA; Grupo de Ecología de Poblaciones de Insectos IFAB Bariloche RN Argentina

Department of Biology University of Florence Via Madonna del Piano 6 50019 Sesto Fiorentino FI Italy

Department of Sociology Environmental and Business Economics University of Southern Denmark Degnevej 14 6705 Esbjerg Ø Denmark; UMR 6308 AMURE Université de Bretagne Occidentale IUEM rue Dumont d'Urville 29280 Plouzané France

Division of BioInvasions Global Change and Macroecology Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research University of Vienna Rennweg 14 1030 Vienna Austria

Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute Matsunosato 1 Tsukuba Ibaraki 305 8687 Japan

Instituto de Ecología Regional Universidad Nacional de Tucumán CONICET CC 34 4107 Yerba Buena Tucumán Argentina

Laboratório de Ecologia Evolutiva e Conservação Departamento de Biologia Animal e Vegetal Universidade Estadual de Londrina CP 6001 Londrina 86051 970 Brazil

Lehrstuhl für Zoologie Evolutionsbiologie Univ Regensburg Universitätsstraße 31 D 93053 Regensburg Germany

MIVEGEC IRD CNRS Université Montpellier Montpellier 34394 France

Nürtingen Geislingen University CEP 37200 900 Lavras MG Brazil

School of Biological Sciences King's College University of Aberdeen Aberdeen AB24 3FX UK

Society for Ecology Evolution and Development Wardha 442001 India; Biology Group School of Arts and Sciences Azim Premji University Bhopal 462022 India

Sukachev Institute of Forest Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences Federal Research Center «Krasnoyarsk Science Center SB RAS» Krasnoyarsk 660036 Russia; Siberian Federal University Krasnoyarsk 660041 Russia; All Russian Plant Quarantine Center Krasnoyarsk branch Krasnoyarsk 660020 Russia

Université Paris Saclay CNRS AgroParisTech Ecologie Systématique Evolution 91190 Gif Sur Yvette France

University of Rennes CNRS ECOBIO UMR 6553 Rennes France; Institut Universitaire de France 1 rue Descartes 75231 Paris Cedex 05 France

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Using species ranges and macroeconomic data to fill the gap in costs of biological invasions