All of the most recent city rankings here. (Or, all years)
Top 100 world cities for an innovation economy in 2012-2013.
The world’s largest city classification and ranking with 450 benchmark cities classified, and top 125 cities ranked in 2012, of which the top 100 are listed below. Based on 2thinknow analysis of cities in what our analysts term the ‘global innovation economy’. Annual since 2007.
2012-13 INDEXES > TOP 100 | AMERICAS | EUROPE | ASIA | EMERGING | GLOBAL | ALL YEARS
View current Media Release + Read the 2012-2013 FAQ
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 |
3 | Vienna | Austria | EUROPE | EUROPE | 1 NEXUS | 57 | |
4 | San Francisco Bay Area | California | United States | AMERICAS | USA | 1 NEXUS | 56 |
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 | |
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 |
13 | Berlin | Germany | EUROPE | EUROPE | 1 NEXUS | 54 | |
14 | Hong Kong | Hong Kong | Hong Kong | ASIA | CHINA | 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 | |
18 | Melbourne | VIC | Australia | ASIA | ANZ | 1 NEXUS | 52 |
19 | Hamburg | Germany | EUROPE | EUROPE | 1 NEXUS | 52 | |
20 | Sydney | NSW | Australia | ASIA | ANZ | 1 NEXUS | 52 |
21 | Seoul | Korea, South | ASIA | ASIA | 1 NEXUS | 52 | |
22 | Washington DC | District of Columbia | United States | AMERICAS | USA | 1 NEXUS | 52 |
23 | Philadelphia | Pennsylvania | United States | AMERICAS | USA | 1 NEXUS | 52 |
24 | Manchester | United Kingdom | EUROPE | EUROPE | 1 NEXUS | 52 | |
25 | Tokyo | Tokyo | Japan | ASIA | JAPAN | 1 NEXUS | 52 |
26 | Chicago | Illinois | United States | AMERICAS | USA | 1 NEXUS | 52 |
27 | Stuttgart | Germany | EUROPE | EUROPE | 1 NEXUS | 52 | |
28 | Tel Aviv | Israel | EUROPE | MID-EAST | 1 NEXUS | 52 | |
29 | Shanghai | Shanghai | China | ASIA | CHINA | 1 NEXUS | 51 |
30 | Singapore | Singapore | ASIA | ASIA | 1 NEXUS | 51 | |
31 | Montreal | Canada | AMERICAS | CANADA | 1 NEXUS | 50 | |
32 | Kyoto | Kyoto | Japan | ASIA | JAPAN | 1 NEXUS | 50 |
33 | Brussels | Belgium | EUROPE | EUROPE | 1 NEXUS | 50 | |
34 | Dubai | United Arab Emirates | EMERGING | MID-EAST | 1 NEXUS | 50 | |
35 | Vancouver | Canada | AMERICAS | CANADA | 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 | |
39 | Dallas-Fort Worth | Texas | United States | AMERICAS | USA | 2 HUB | 49 |
40 | Marseille | France | EUROPE | EUROPE | 2 HUB | 49 | |
41 | Dusseldorf | Germany | EUROPE | EUROPE | 2 HUB | 49 | |
42 | Strasbourg | France | EUROPE | EUROPE | 2 HUB | 49 | |
43 | Austin | Texas | United States | AMERICAS | USA | 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 | |
47 | Osaka | Osaka | Japan | ASIA | JAPAN | 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 |
53 | Beijing | Beijing | China | ASIA | CHINA | 2 HUB | 48 |
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 | |
57 | Denver | Colorado | United States | AMERICAS | USA | 2 HUB | 48 |
58 | Budapest | Hungary | EUROPE | EUROPE | 2 HUB | 48 | |
59 | Edinburgh | United Kingdom | EUROPE | EUROPE | 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 |
63 | Toulouse | France | EUROPE | EUROPE | 2 HUB | 47 | |
64 | Newark | New Jersey | United States | AMERICAS | USA | 2 HUB | 47 |
65 | Baltimore | Maryland | United States | AMERICAS | USA | 2 HUB | 47 |
66 | Kuala Lumpur | Malaysia | ASIA | ASIA | 2 HUB | 47 | |
67 | Quebec | Canada | AMERICAS | CANADA | 2 HUB | 47 | |
68 | Abu Dhabi | United Arab Emirates | EMERGING | MID-EAST | 2 HUB | 47 | |
69 | Rotterdam | Netherlands | EUROPE | EUROPE | 2 HUB | 47 | |
70 | Dresden | Germany | EUROPE | EUROPE | 2 HUB | 47 | |
71 | Shenzhen | Guangdong | China | ASIA | CHINA | 2 HUB | 47 |
72 | Zurich | 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 | |
77 | Santa Ana-Anaheim | California | United States | AMERICAS | USA | 2 HUB | 47 |
78 | Nantes | France | EUROPE | EUROPE | 2 HUB | 47 | |
79 | Pittsburgh | Pennsylvania | United States | AMERICAS | USA | 2 HUB | 47 |
80 | Kobe | Hyogo | Japan | ASIA | JAPAN | 2 HUB | 47 |
81 | Kansas City | KO/MO | United States | AMERICAS | USA | 2 HUB | 47 |
82 | Geneva | Switzerland | EUROPE | EUROPE | 2 HUB | 47 | |
83 | Tampa | Florida | United States | AMERICAS | USA | 2 HUB | 47 |
84 | St Petersburg | Russia | EUROPE | RUSSIA | 2 HUB | 47 | |
85 | Brisbane | QLD | Australia | ASIA | ANZ | 2 HUB | 47 |
86 | Montpellier | France | EUROPE | EUROPE | 2 HUB | 46 | |
87 | Richmond | Virginia | United States | AMERICAS | USA | 2 HUB | 46 |
88 | Torino | Italy | EUROPE | EUROPE | 2 HUB | 46 | |
89 | Istanbul | Turkey | EUROPE | MID-EAST | 2 HUB | 46 | |
90 | Ann Arbor | Michigan | United States | AMERICAS | USA | 2 HUB | 46 |
91 | Auckland | New Zealand | ASIA | ANZ | 2 HUB | 46 | |
92 | Glasgow | United Kingdom | EUROPE | EUROPE | 2 HUB | 46 | |
93 | Mexico City | Mexico | AMERICAS | LATIN AMERICA | 2 HUB | 46 | |
94 | Madrid | Spain | EUROPE | EUROPE | 2 HUB | 46 | |
95 | Taipei | Taiwan | ASIA | CHINA | 2 HUB | 46 | |
96 | Aachen | Germany | EUROPE | EUROPE | 2 HUB | 46 | |
97 | Bangkok | Thailand | ASIA | ASIA | 2 HUB | 46 | |
98 | Providence | Rhode Island | United States | AMERICAS | USA | 2 HUB | 46 |
99 | Nice | France | EUROPE | EUROPE | 2 HUB | 46 | |
100 | Mannheim-Heidelberg | Germany | EUROPE | EUROPE | 2 HUB | 46 |
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