Innovation Cities Americas Index 2012-2013


All of the most recent city rankings here. (Or, all years)

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City innovation classifications and rankings 2012-2013 for USA, Canada and South America.

World’s largest city classification and global ranking with 117 Americas cities (86 USA, 14 Canada, 17 South America)  from 450 benchmark cities classified, and with top cities ranked in 2012. Based on 2thinknow analysis of cities on 162 city indicators from 2thinknow City Benchmarking Data program. Established 2007.

2012-13 INDEXES > TOP 100 | AMERICAS | EUROPE ASIA | EMERGING | GLOBAL | ALL YEARS

View current Media Release + Read the 2012-2013 FAQ

Global Rank City State Country Region Sub Region Classification Index Score
1 Boston Massachusetts United States AMERICAS USA 1 NEXUS 57
1 New York New York United States AMERICAS USA 1 NEXUS 57
4 San Francisco Bay Area California United States AMERICAS USA 1 NEXUS 56
10 Seattle Washington United States AMERICAS USA 1 NEXUS 54
11 Toronto Canada AMERICAS CANADA 1 NEXUS 54
12 Los Angeles California United States AMERICAS USA 1 NEXUS 54
22 Washington DC District of Columbia United States AMERICAS USA 1 NEXUS 52
23 Philadelphia Pennsylvania United States AMERICAS USA 1 NEXUS 52
26 Chicago Illinois United States AMERICAS USA 1 NEXUS 52
31 Montreal Canada AMERICAS CANADA 1 NEXUS 50
35 Vancouver Canada AMERICAS CANADA 1 NEXUS 50
39 Dallas-Fort Worth Texas United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 49
43 Austin Texas United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 49
48 Raleigh-Durham North Carolina United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 49
49 San Diego California United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 49
50 Orlando Florida United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 49
51 Portland Oregon United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 48
52 Minneapolis-St Paul Minnesota United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 48
57 Denver Colorado United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 48
60 Houston Texas United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 48
61 Atlanta Georgia United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 48
62 Miami Florida United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 48
64 Newark New Jersey United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 47
65 Baltimore Maryland United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 47
67 Quebec Canada AMERICAS CANADA 2 HUB 47
77 Santa Ana-Anaheim California United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 47
79 Pittsburgh Pennsylvania United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 47
81 Kansas City KO/MO United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 47
83 Tampa Florida United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 47
87 Richmond Virginia United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 46
90 Ann Arbor Michigan United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 46
93 Mexico City Mexico AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 2 HUB 46
98 Providence Rhode Island United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 46
106 Manchester New Hampshire United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 46
107 Las Vegas Nevada United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 46
109 Berkeley California United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 46
110 Tallahassee Florida United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 46
113 Rochester New York United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 46
114 Jacksonville Florida United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 46
118 Sao Paulo Brazil AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 2 HUB 45
121 Ventura-Oxnard California United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 45
123 Boulder Colorado United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 45
124 Edmonton Canada AMERICAS CANADA 2 HUB 45
125 Boise Idaho United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 45
126 Phoenix Arizona United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 45
128 Buffalo New York United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 45
129 Colorado Springs Colorado United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 45
130 Albany New York United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 45
131 Spokane Washington United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 45
132 Roanoke Virginia United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 45
San Antonio Texas United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 45
Des Moines Iowa United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 45
Memphis Tennessee United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 45
Nashville Tennessee United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 45
Calgary Alberta Canada AMERICAS CANADA 2 HUB 45
Charlottesville Virginia United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 45
Charlotte North Carolina United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 45
Norfolk-Virginia Beach Virginia United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 45
Sacramento California United States AMERICAS USA 2 HUB 45
Salt Lake City Utah United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 44
Oklahoma City Oklahoma United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 44
Cleveland Ohio United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 44
Birmingham Alabama United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 44
Milwaukee Wisconsin United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 44
Riverside California United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 44
Savannah Georgia United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 44
St Louis Missouri United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 44
Rio De Janeiro Brazil AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 3 NODE 44
Oakland California United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 44
Fort Lauderdale Florida United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 44
Honolulu Hawaii United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 44
Hartford Connecticut United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 43
Springfield Massachusetts United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 43
Stockton California United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 43
Tucson Arizona United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 43
Bakersfield California United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 43
Fresno California United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 43
Detroit Michigan United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 43
Grand Rapids Michigan United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 43
Rochester Minnesota United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 43
Charleston South Carolina United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 43
Green Bay Wisconsin United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 43
Madison Wisconsin United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 43
Corpus Christi Texas United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 43
Syracuse New York United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 43
Greensboro North Carolina United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 43
Allentown Pennsylvania United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 43
Wichita Kansas United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 43
Cincinnati Ohio United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 42
Bridgeport Connecticut United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 42
Montgomery Alabama United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 42
Lancaster Pennsylvania United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 42
Buenos Aires Argentina AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 3 NODE 42
Modesto California United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 42
Indianapolis Indiana United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 42
New Haven Connecticut United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 41
El Paso Texas United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 41
Augusta Georgia United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 41
Monterrey Mexico AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 3 NODE 41
Springfield Illinois United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 41
Louisville Kentucky United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 41
New Orleans Louisiana United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 41
Columbus Ohio United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 41
Baton Rouge Louisiana United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 41
Cedar Rapids Iowa United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 40
Omaha Nebraska United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 40
Albuquerque New Mexico United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 40
Toledo Ohio United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 40
Chattanooga Tennessee United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 40
Hamilton Canada AMERICAS CANADA 3 NODE 40
Little Rock Arkansas United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 40
Winnipeg Canada AMERICAS CANADA 3 NODE 40
Halifax Canada AMERICAS CANADA 3 NODE 40
Ottawa Canada AMERICAS CANADA 3 NODE 40
Curitiba Brazil AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 3 NODE 40
Greenville South Carolina United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 40
Brasilia Brazil AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 3 NODE 40
Lexington Kentucky United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 40
Tulsa Oklahoma United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 40
Jackson Mississippi United States AMERICAS USA 3 NODE 40
Medellin Colombia AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 3 NODE 40
Kitchener Canada AMERICAS CANADA 4 INFLUENCER 39
Springfield Missouri United States AMERICAS USA 4 INFLUENCER 39
Bozeman Montana United States AMERICAS USA 4 INFLUENCER 39
Reno Nevada United States AMERICAS USA 4 INFLUENCER 39
Fredericton - St John New Brunswick Canada AMERICAS CANADA 4 INFLUENCER 39
London Canada AMERICAS CANADA 4 INFLUENCER 39
Winston-Salem North Carolina United States AMERICAS USA 4 INFLUENCER 39
Knoxville Tennessee United States AMERICAS USA 4 INFLUENCER 39
Panama City Panama AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 4 INFLUENCER 39
Puebla Puebla Mexico AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 4 INFLUENCER 39
Columbia South Carolina United States AMERICAS USA 4 INFLUENCER 39
Moncton New Brunswick Canada AMERICAS CANADA 4 INFLUENCER 38
Anchorage Alaska United States AMERICAS USA 4 INFLUENCER 38
Akron Ohio United States AMERICAS USA 4 INFLUENCER 38
Salvador Bahia Brazil AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 4 INFLUENCER 38
Dayton Ohio United States AMERICAS USA 4 INFLUENCER 37
Belo Horizonte Brazil AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 4 INFLUENCER 37
Recife Pernambuco Brazil AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 4 INFLUENCER 37
Lincoln Nebraska United States AMERICAS USA 4 INFLUENCER 37
Bogot Colombia AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 4 INFLUENCER 37
Pachuca Hidalgo Mexico AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 4 INFLUENCER 36
San Jose, Costa Rica Costa Rica AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 4 INFLUENCER 36
San Salvador El Salvador AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 4 INFLUENCER 36
Cordoba Argentina AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 4 INFLUENCER 36
Guadalajara Mexico AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 4 INFLUENCER 36
Porto Alegre Brazil AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 4 INFLUENCER 35
Caracas Venezuela AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 4 INFLUENCER 35
Valpara¡so Valpara¡so Chile AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 4 INFLUENCER 35
Santo Domingo, DR Dominican Republic AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 4 INFLUENCER 35
Quito Ecuador AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 5 UPSTART 34
Santiago Chile AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 5 UPSTART 34
Lima Peru AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 5 UPSTART 33
Montevideo Uruguay AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 5 UPSTART 31
Havana Havana Cuba AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA 5 UPSTART 31
Tegucigalpa Honduras AMERICAS LATIN AMERICA -- 29
San Juan Puerto Rico AMERICAS USA -- 28

Innovation Classifications.

All cities are graded into award categories based on their band score. In descending order of importance to the innovation economy:

NEXUS: Critical nexus for multiple economic and social innovation segments

HUB: Dominance or influence on key economic and social innovation segments , based on global rends

NODE: Broad performance across many innovation segments, with key imbalances

INFLUENCER: Competitive in some segments, potential or imbalanced

UPSTART: Potential steps towards relative future performance in a few innovation segments.

Regional Classifications.

Regions are defined as follows:

AMERICAS: North and South America

EUROPE: The U.N. defined Europe with European union, Western Russia, Israel and some Turkish cities

ASIA: Asia and Oceania (Australia/NZ)

EMERGING: Mid-East, Africa, Turkey and Caucasus states.

There are further sub regions divisions since 2012, and the Index can also be analyzed this way.

Full details.

Purchase City Benchmarking Data: All data for a single city or a mix of indicators to compare cities.

Read the analyst city report to understand the underlying framework and thinking.

Or select a Service Package for a package of analysis on cities.

Methodology in brief.

The Index is the most comprehensive city ranking and scoring. Each city was selected from 1,540 cities based on basic factors of health, wealth, population, geography as well as potential relative to peers. The final 450 cities had data extracted the city benchmarking data program on 162 indicators, and this was reduced to 445 published cities. Each of the benchmarking data was scored by analysts using best available qualitative analysis and quantitative statistics (see City Benchmarking Data to purchase city data).

Underlying data was then balanced against current global trends, by analysts to form a simplified 3 factor score for Cultural Assets, Human Infrastructure and Networked Markets. For city classification, these scores were competitively graded into 5 bands (Nexus, Hub, Node, Influencer, Upstart) based on how broad based (multiple indicators) the city performance was.

The top 30% of cities in the Nexus and Hub were ranked by analysts based on comparison of current innovation potential.

From this global Index 4 regional indexes for Americas, Europe, Asia and Emerging are then also produced.

Please note the full list above is classified (Node, Influencer, Upstart) not ranked except where a rank is noted. Rankings are just for general information. A node ranking is considered globally competitive. More discussion and questions answered in this  FAQ.

For more details on methodology, please see the FAQ or order the Innovation Cities Analysis Report.

Reproduction of this list.

The indexes and supporting materials are copyright and used under license by 2thinknow. You may reproduce the statistics and indexes in any reasonable form, graphics, or data mash-up as long as you attribute it to 2thinknow and do not modify the numbers or otherwise mislead. The easy correct way to do this is as follows:

Source: 2thinknow Innovation Cities™ Index 2012-2013: www.innovation-cities.com [or the link of the page you are referencing]

2thinknow do reserve all rights, including the right to ask content to be removed.

About 2thinknow Innovation Cities™ Program.

Based in Melbourne Australia, 2thinknow are the world’s first innovation agency. Established 2006 we have  designed original  models to measure and deliver innovation to cities, business seeking new markets and growth, and NGO/government clients.

2thinknow Innovation Cities™ Program to provide powerful tools for creating an innovation economy. This includes the City Benchmarking Data™ details on cities by segment globally, recently launched local innovation forum events, analyst reports such as the flagship Innovation Cities™ Analysis Report. In the Innovation Course, we are teaching our clients new innovation methods and practices. 2thinknow work with other clients through innovation consulting, analyst reports, projects  and innovation services, as well as a number of online resources and groups.

2thinknow have published the Innovation Cities™ Indexes city rankings free online since 2007.

This is now 445 cities in the 2012 year, and is the world’s largest and most diverse city ranking.

Contact 2thinknow here: http://innovation-cities.com/enquire/ or via twitter @2thinknow