Top 100 world cities for an innovation economy in 2011. The world's largest city classification and ranking with 331 benchmark cities classified, and top 125 cities ranked in 2011, 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.

2011-INDEXES > TOP 100 | AMERICAS | EUROPE | ASIA | EMERGING | GLOBAL | ALL YEARS

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GLOBAL RANK CITY STATE COUNTRY CLASSIFICATION BAND SCORE 1 Boston Massachusetts United States 1 NEXUS 29 2 San Francisco Bay Area California United States 1 NEXUS 29 3 Paris France 1 NEXUS 29 4 New York New York United States 1 NEXUS 29 5 Vienna Austria 1 NEXUS 28 6 Amsterdam Netherlands 1 NEXUS 28 7 Munich Germany 1 NEXUS 28 8 Lyon France 1 NEXUS 27 9 Copenhagen Denmark 1 NEXUS 27 10 Toronto Canada 1 NEXUS 27 11 London United Kingdom 1 NEXUS 27 12 Frankfurt Germany 1 NEXUS 27 13 Hamburg Germany 1 NEXUS 27 14 Berlin Germany 1 NEXUS 26 15 Hong Kong Hong Kong Hong Kong 1 NEXUS 26 16 Milan Italy 1 NEXUS 26 17 Melbourne VIC Australia 1 NEXUS 26 18 Stuttgart Germany 1 NEXUS 26 19 Barcelona Spain 1 NEXUS 25 20 Sydney NSW Australia 1 NEXUS 25 21 Stockholm Sweden 1 NEXUS 25 22 Tokyo Tokyo Japan 1 NEXUS 25 23 Rome Italy 1 NEXUS 25 24 Shanghai Shanghai China 1 NEXUS 25 25 Seattle Washington United States 1 NEXUS 25 26 Singapore Singapore 1 NEXUS 25 27 Strasbourg France 1 NEXUS 25 28 Seoul Korea, South 1 NEXUS 25 29 Los Angeles California United States 1 NEXUS 25 30 Kyoto Kyoto Japan 1 NEXUS 25 31 Montréal Canada 1 NEXUS 25 32 Manchester United Kingdom 1 NEXUS 25 33 Philadelphia Pennsylvania United States 1 NEXUS 25 34 Chicago Illinois United States 2 HUB 25 35 Washington DC District of Columbia United States 2 HUB 25 36 Düsseldorf Germany 2 HUB 25 37 Nantes France 2 HUB 24 38 Brussels Belgium 2 HUB 24 39 Marseille France 2 HUB 24 40 Oslo Norway 2 HUB 24 41 Bordeaux France 2 HUB 24 42 Helsinki Finland 2 HUB 24 43 Prague Czech Republic 2 HUB 24 44 Toulouse France 2 HUB 24 45 Cologne Germany 2 HUB 24 46 Tel Aviv Israel 2 HUB 24 47 Budapest Hungary 2 HUB 24 48 Osaka Osaka Japan 2 HUB 24 49 Vancouver Canada 2 HUB 24 50 Leipzig Germany 2 HUB 24 51 Austin Texas United States 2 HUB 24 52 Madrid Spain 2 HUB 24 53 Beijing Beijing China 2 HUB 24 54 Denver Colorado United States 2 HUB 24 55 Minneapolis-St Paul Minnesota United States 2 HUB 24 56 Orlando Florida United States 2 HUB 24 57 Hannover Germany 2 HUB 24 58 Dresden Germany 2 HUB 24 59 Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates 2 HUB 23 60 Portland Oregon United States 2 HUB 23 61 Wellington New Zealand 2 HUB 23 62 The Hague Netherlands 2 HUB 23 63 Montpellier France 2 HUB 23 64 Karlsruhe Germany 2 HUB 23 65 Edinburgh United Kingdom 2 HUB 23 66 Fukuoka Fukoaka Japan 2 HUB 23 67 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia 2 HUB 23 68 Aachen Germany 2 HUB 23 69 Geneva Switzerland 2 HUB 23 70 Auckland New Zealand 2 HUB 23 71 Zürich Switzerland 2 HUB 23 72 Ann Arbor Michigan United States 2 HUB 23 73 Raleigh-Durham North Carolina United States 2 HUB 23 74 Glasgow United Kingdom 2 HUB 23 75 Nuremberg Germany 2 HUB 23 76 Dallas-Fort Worth Texas United States 2 HUB 23 77 Essen Germany 2 HUB 23 78 Rotterdam Netherlands 2 HUB 23 79 Québec Canada 2 HUB 23 80 Torino Italy 2 HUB 23 81 Calgary Alberta Canada 2 HUB 23 82 Bilbao Spain 2 HUB 23 83 Dortmund Germany 2 HUB 23 84 Antwerp Belgium 2 HUB 23 85 Kobe Hyogo Japan 2 HUB 23 86 Linz Austria 2 HUB 23 87 Houston Texas United States 2 HUB 23 88 Bonn Germany 2 HUB 23 89 Istanbul Turkey 2 HUB 23 90 Venice Italy 2 HUB 23 91 Dubai United Arab Emirates 2 HUB 23 92 Pittsburgh Pennsylvania United States 2 HUB 23 93 Shenzhen Guangdong China 2 HUB 23 94 Jacksonville Florida United States 2 HUB 23 95 Baltimore Maryland United States 2 HUB 23 96 Reims France 2 HUB 23 97 Atlanta Georgia United States 2 HUB 23 98 Tallahassee Florida United States 2 HUB 23 99 San Diego California United States 2 HUB 23 100 Taipei Taiwan 2 HUB 23

Key to index.

All cities are graded into award categories based on their index 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 trends 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 Regions are defined as follows: AMERICAS: North and South America EUROPE: The U.N. defined Europe with European union, Western Russia, Israel and major Turkish cities ASIA: Asia and Oceania (Australia/NZ) EMERGING: Mid-East, Africa, Turkey and Caucasus states

Full details

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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. The selected 331 cities had data extracted the city benchmarking data program on 162 indicators. Each of the benchmarking data were scored by analysts using best available qualitative analysis and quantitative statistics (see City Benchmarking Data to purchase city data). Where data was unavailable, national or state estimates were used. Data was then trend balanced against 21 global trends, by analysts.For the final index had a zeitgeist (analyst confidence) factor added, and score reduced to a 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) The top 33% of Nexus and Hub ( and selected Node cities of future interest) final graded scores were ranked by analysts based on trends over 2-5 years. From this global Index, 4 regional indexes for Americas, Europe, Asia and Emerging are also produced. Please note the full list above is classified (Node, Influencer, Upstart) not ranked except wher 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™ Program: 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 2011, 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. Since 2009, 2thinknow as world's first innovation agency have classified cities for broad-based innovation. 2thinknow have published the Innovation Cities Indexes city rankings free online since 2007, when they started with a very small 22 cities. This is now 331 cities in the 2011 year, and is the world's largest and most diverse city ranking. Contact 2thinknow here: https://www.innovation-cities.com/enquire// or via twitter @2thinknow