Fractional slot concentrated winding (FSCW) permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) have been a research hotspot over the past few decades. Recently, the magnetic gearing effect in FSCW PMSMs is revealed along with its gear ratio which is a function of slot/pole number combination. At the design stage of FSCW PMSMs, one of the key issues is the selection of the slot/pole number combination. This paper shows that the gear ratio can contribute to a proper slot/pole number selection in any multi-phase FSCW PMSMs by acting as a unified index for a quick overall performance comparison. In the paper, firstly, the magnetic gearing effect in FSCW PMSMs is explained and the gear ratio is further discussed. The advantages of adopting gear ratio as the overall performance index over other indices are revealed. The influence of the gear ratio on the winding factor, torque output, cogging torque, inductance and rotor losses of 3-and 6-phase FSCW PMSMs are analyzed and validated by experiments, thus proving the analyses. Index Terms-concentrated winding, fractional slot, gear ratio, inductance, losses, magnetic gearing effect, permanent magnet machines, winding factor. Yue Liu (S'16) received the B.Eng. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical and electronic engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, in 2013 and 2015, respectively. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in the