Provided below are two lists compiled from 2011 data and published in a December 2012 report by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute. The first lists those cities or portions of metropolitan areas that have the highest percentage of their workforce employed in high-tech industries.

The second was compiled by the this author from the report’s summary chart for the top 150 metro areas. It shows those metropolitan areas (versus individual cities or portions of a metropolitan area) with the largest aggregate high-tech workforce. In this case, larger population centers tend to have a numerical advantage, but it was interesting data to calculate.

The data reinforces known information on the primary high-tech centers in the United States. But it also contains a few surprises – principle among them is the unexpected high-tech powerhouse of Wichita, Kansas. Yes, Wichita is one of America’s great aircraft manufacturing centers, but its economy has grown to become much more high-tech diverse. In fact, according to the study, several other cities in the Great Plains have developed a significant amount of high-tech employment including Kansas City, Omaha, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa.

The only disappointment with the report was that it left out some significant smaller markets, particularly university cities that are major high-tech centers. These include Ann Arbor, MI; Lafayette-West Lafayette, IN; Ames, Iowa; and Fort Collins, CO. Otherwise, the report is quite interesting and informative.

High-Tech as a Percentage of the Total Work Force

San Jose, CA Boulder (Denver), CO Huntsville, AL Cambridge-Framingham (Boston), MA Seattle, WA Wichita, KS Washington, DC Melbourne-Titusville, FL Bethesda-Frederick (Washington), MD San Francisco, CA Durham-Chapel Hill (Research Triangle), NC Manchester-Nashua, NH San Diego, CA Austin, TX Peabody (Boston), MA Prove-Orem, UT Colorado Springs, CO Oakland-Fremont, CA Raleigh-Cary (Research Triangle), NC Santa Barbara, CA Trenton (Philadelphia), NJ Madison, WI Albuquerque, NM Lake County-Kenosha (Chicago), IL-WI Orange County, CA

Total High-Tech Employment by Metro Regions