When you think of the world’s cities that are trailblazing innovation, you might think of Tokyo, London, Toronto, and New York. Dallas-Fort Worth is on that list, too, and watch out, it’s gaining ground.

A new ranking from 2thinknow place the North Texas metro area as 13th among the world’s top 500 cities for innovation. That’s up three places from the previous ranking in the Innovation Cities Program created by 2thinknow in 2006 and first published in 2007.

The program is used by businesses to compare cities across the globe to help them make investment decisions, and it offers businesses and governments powerful tools for innovation.

“Having just released the results of our own regional innovation study, it comes as no surprise that 2thinknow ranks DFW among the top metros in the world.”
Eric Griffin

“The [Innovation Cities] Index measures the quality of city assets required to tap into innovation potential. Having just released the results of our own regional innovation study, it comes as no surprise that 2thinknow ranks DFW among the top metros in the world,” Eric Griffin, managing director for research and innovation at the Dallas Regional Chamber, told Dallas Innovates via email. 

The ranking helps elevate DFW’s status worldwide.

“The Dallas Regional Chamber is working to strengthen DFW’s position among innovation economies and appreciates having a neutral and respected resource like the Innovation Cities Index to reference,” he said.

2thinknow said that its analysis shows that cities with higher rates of innovation bring in more revenue and create more jobs. 

“This year innovation is likely to come from large cities as usual, but we found on a population-adjusted basis many small cities are punching above their weight,” Christopher Hire, director of commercial data provider 2thinknow, told Business Facilities. “It’s the year of big cities with physical networks and small cities with digital networks, going global.”

U.S. PLACED 37 CITIES ON THE LIST

Tokyo jumped one spot this year to take the top rakning ahead of last year’s top city, London. San Francisco-San Jose ranked third ahead of New York City and Los Angeles to complete the top five.

Filling out the top 10 were Singapore, Boston, Toronto, Paris, and Sydney, Australia.

Houston placed No. 17 on the list and Austin was No. 29. San Antonio placed at No. 108,  while El Paso came in at No. 166 and Corpus Christi placed at No. 215. The United States placed 37 metro areas on the list.

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