London Beats Silicon Valley In Innovation Cities Index 2015

MELBOURNE, Australia, Dec. 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- London out-performed previous winners Silicon Valley, Vienna and Boston to become the world's most innovative city in 2015. 2thinknow released the results of the 9th annual Innovation Cities Index in Melbourne today.

"London's win indicates the strength of the financial capital's recent focus on innovation, even beating out the tech standing of Silicon Valley, with a lower cost base than San Francisco. London was the first European capital to implement innovation strategies in response to the global financial crisis, and is winning the global innovation race," said Christopher Hire, Executive Director of 2thinknow, publishers' of the cities index.

Rounding out the top five, was the fast rising Asian city Seoul, for the first time entering the top ten globally. The next five cities in the global top cities were New York, Amsterdam, Singapore, Paris and Tokyo.

In the emerging region Dubai rose further globally to 23rd, ahead of fellow emirate of Abu Dhabi (42), Istanbul (95) and Cape Town (125).

In 2015 there were numerous other fast rising cities were Barcelona (now 27), Beijing (40), St Petersburg (48), Taipei (52), Madrid (56), Dublin (61), Mumbai (74), Oporto (99) and Medellin (147).

The percentage of North American cities in the top hundred fell to 31%, as the percentage of Asian cities rose to 19% for the first time ever.

Common to many fast moving cities were improvements in economic conditions, startup enterprises and technology sectors.

The indexes are published every year to measure each cities pre-conditions for innovation, with 500 cities considered in 2015.

Behind the index is the analyst insight is that cities with more innovation will have higher economic output, and are the best destinations to invest in commercial product, service or social innovation without a specific industry focus.

Besides the global index the regional indexes produced a wide variety of results in four regions. All indexes are available on www.innovation-cities.com/indexes

SPOKESPERSON
Christopher Hire
Executive Director, 2thinknow
+61 3 8678 0319 or +1 888 241 5450 (USA, toll free)
Email

ABOUT THE INNOVATION CITIES INDEX FOR EDITORS

More than 75% of cities over 1 million population monitor the Innovation Cities Index results, and many major entities such as Samsung, PWC, Brookings Institution, UN Habitat and Jones Lang LaSalle use the Index results to assess broad-based city innovation.

The Innovation Cities Index is based on 2thinknow analysts consulting 162 indicators of data.

This underlying data is used for decision making by major cities, Fortune 500 corporations and management consultants.

Please reproduce the index results in all quality media.

For the full table of results see:
http://www.innovation-cities.com/innovation-cities-index-2015-global/9609

Please link to this table when publishing.

SOURCE 2thinknow