Innovation Cities™ Europe Index 2012-2013


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

City innovation classifications and rankings 2012-2013 for Europe.

World’s largest city classification and global ranking with 120 European cities from 450 benchmark cities classified, and top 60 European cities ranked in 2012. Based on 2thinknow analysis of cities on 162 city indicators, in what our analysts term the ‘global innovation economy’. Annual city scores and ranking since 2007. City indicators data from 2thinknow City Benchmarking Dataprogram.

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
3 Vienna Austria EUROPE EUROPE 1 NEXUS 57
5 Paris France EUROPE EUROPE 1 NEXUS 56
6 Munich Germany EUROPE EUROPE 1 NEXUS 56
7 London United Kingdom EUROPE EUROPE 1 NEXUS 56
8 Copenhagen Denmark EUROPE EUROPE 1 NEXUS 55
9 Amsterdam Netherlands EUROPE EUROPE 1 NEXUS 55
13 Berlin Germany EUROPE EUROPE 1 NEXUS 54
15 Frankfurt Germany EUROPE EUROPE 1 NEXUS 54
16 Stockholm Sweden EUROPE EUROPE 1 NEXUS 53
17 Lyon France EUROPE EUROPE 1 NEXUS 53
19 Hamburg Germany EUROPE EUROPE 1 NEXUS 52
24 Manchester United Kingdom EUROPE EUROPE 1 NEXUS 52
27 Stuttgart Germany EUROPE EUROPE 1 NEXUS 52
28 Tel Aviv Israel EUROPE MID-EAST 1 NEXUS 52
33 Brussels Belgium EUROPE EUROPE 1 NEXUS 50
36 Helsinki Finland EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 49
37 Leipzig Germany EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 49
38 Oslo Norway EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 49
40 Marseille France EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 49
41 Dusseldorf Germany EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 49
42 Strasbourg France EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 49
44 Cologne Germany EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 49
45 The Hague Netherlands EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 49
46 Milan Italy EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 49
54 Bordeaux France EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 48
55 Prague Czech Republic EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 48
56 Barcelona Spain EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 48
58 Budapest Hungary EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 48
59 Edinburgh United Kingdom EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 48
63 Toulouse France EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 47
69 Rotterdam Netherlands EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 47
70 Dresden Germany EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 47
72 Zurich Switzerland EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 47
73 Karlsruhe Germany EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 47
74 Moscow Russia EUROPE RUSSIA 2 HUB 47
75 Rome Italy EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 47
76 Hannover Germany EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 47
78 Nantes France EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 47
82 Geneva Switzerland EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 47
84 St Petersburg Russia EUROPE RUSSIA 2 HUB 47
86 Montpellier France EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 46
88 Torino Italy EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 46
89 Istanbul Turkey EUROPE MID-EAST 2 HUB 46
92 Glasgow United Kingdom EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 46
94 Madrid Spain EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 46
96 Aachen Germany EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 46
99 Nice France EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 46
100 Mannheim-Heidelberg Germany EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 46
101 Nuremberg Germany EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 46
102 Essen Germany EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 46
103 Dortmund Germany EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 46
104 Antwerp Belgium EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 46
105 Bonn Germany EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 46
111 Bremen Germany EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 46
115 Lille France EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 45
116 Bilbao Spain EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 45
120 Belgrade Serbia EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 45
122 Linz Austria EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 45
127 Malmo Scania Sweden EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 45
133 Graz Austria EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 45
Bochum North Rhine-Westphalia Germany EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 45
Kiel Germany EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 45
Jerusalem Israel EUROPE MID-EAST 2 HUB 45
Luxembourg Luxembourg EUROPE EUROPE 2 HUB 45
Eindhoven North Brabant Netherlands EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 44
Reims France EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 44
Odense Southern Denmark Denmark EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 44
Bristol United Kingdom EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 44
Liverpool United Kingdom EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 44
Duisburg North Rhine-Westphalia Germany EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 44
Basel Switzerland EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 44
Warsaw Poland EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 44
Rennes France EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 44
Dublin Ireland EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 44
Utrecht Netherlands EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 44
Leuven Flemish Brabant Belgium EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 43
Kingston-Upon-Hull United Kingdom EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 43
Lisbon Portugal EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 43
Oporto Portugal EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 43
Bern Switzerland EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 43
Lucerne Switzerland EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 43
Birmingham United Kingdom EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 43
Cannes France EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 43
Dijon Bourgogne  France EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 43
Rouen Haute-Normandie  France EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 43
Saint Etienne Rhone-Alpes France EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 43
Yekaterinburg Sverdlovsk Oblast Russia EUROPE RUSSIA 3 NODE 43
Florence Italy EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 43
Leeds United Kingdom EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 43
Le Havre Upper Normandy France EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 42
Salzburg Austria EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 42
Gent Belgium EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 42
Lisge Belgium EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 42
Gdansk Poland EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 42
Gothenburg Sweden EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 42
Belfast United Kingdom EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 42
Cardiff United Kingdom EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 42
Coventry United Kingdom EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 42
Kazan Tatarstan Russia EUROPE RUSSIA 3 NODE 42
Zagreb Croatia EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 42
Grenoble Rhone-Alpes France EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 42
Bath & NE Somerset United Kingdom EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 42
Venice Italy EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 42
Ljubljana Slovenia EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 41
Novosibirsk Novosibirsk Oblast Russia EUROPE RUSSIA 3 NODE 41
Samara Samara Oblast Russia EUROPE RUSSIA 3 NODE 41
Metz Lorraine France EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 41
Sheffield Yorkshire United Kingdom EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 41
Bologna Italy EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 41
Parma Italy EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 41
Limoges Limousin France EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 41
Bratislava Slovakia EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 41
Krasnoyarsk Krasnoyarsk Krai Russia EUROPE RUSSIA 3 NODE 40
Newcastle-upon-Tyne United Kingdom EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 40
Tallinn Estonia EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 40
Bucharest Romania EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 40
Malaga Spain EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 40
Pamplona Spain EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 40
Seville Spain EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 40
Valencia Spain EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 40
Kaliningrad Kaliningrad Oblast Russia EUROPE RUSSIA 3 NODE 40
Verona Italy EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 40
Rostov-na-Donu Russia EUROPE RUSSIA 3 NODE 40
Riga Latvia EUROPE EUROPE 3 NODE 40
Trieste Italy EUROPE EUROPE 4 INFLUENCER 39
Padova Italy EUROPE EUROPE 4 INFLUENCER 39
Modena Italy EUROPE EUROPE 4 INFLUENCER 39
Athens Greece EUROPE EUROPE 4 INFLUENCER 39
Brno South Moravian Region Czech Republic EUROPE EUROPE 4 INFLUENCER 39
Vilnius Lithuania EUROPE EUROPE 4 INFLUENCER 39
Katowice Poland EUROPE EUROPE 4 INFLUENCER 39
Nizhny Novgorod Russia EUROPE RUSSIA 4 INFLUENCER 39
Reykjavik Iceland EUROPE EUROPE 4 INFLUENCER 39
Krak¢w Poland EUROPE EUROPE 4 INFLUENCER 39
Perm Perm Krai Russia EUROPE RUSSIA 4 INFLUENCER 38
Saratov Saratov Oblast Russia EUROPE RUSSIA 4 INFLUENCER 38
Gijon Asturias Spain EUROPE EUROPE 4 INFLUENCER 38
Dubrovnik Croatia EUROPE EUROPE 4 INFLUENCER 38
Sofia Bulgaria EUROPE EUROPE 4 INFLUENCER 38
Tomsk Tomsk Oblast Russia EUROPE RUSSIA 4 INFLUENCER 38
Kosice Slovakia EUROPE EUROPE 4 INFLUENCER 38
Vladivostok Primorsky Krai Russia EUROPE RUSSIA 4 INFLUENCER 37
Omsk Omsk Oblast Russia EUROPE RUSSIA 4 INFLUENCER 37
Chrisinau Moldova EUROPE EUROPE 4 INFLUENCER 37
Volgograd Volgograd Oblast Russia EUROPE RUSSIA 4 INFLUENCER 36
Izhevsk Udmurt Republic Russia EUROPE RUSSIA 4 INFLUENCER 36
Timisoara Romania EUROPE EUROPE 4 INFLUENCER 36
Thessaloniki Greece EUROPE EUROPE 4 INFLUENCER 36
Barnaul Altai Krai Russia EUROPE RUSSIA 4 INFLUENCER 35
Orenburg Orenburg Oblast Russia EUROPE RUSSIA 4 INFLUENCER 35
Tolyatti Samara Oblast Russia EUROPE RUSSIA 4 INFLUENCER 35
Granada Spain EUROPE EUROPE 5 UPSTART 34
Tirana Albania EUROPE EUROPE 5 UPSTART 33
Skopje Macedonia EUROPE EUROPE -- 29

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