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In Depth: America's Most Innovative Cities

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Kent Steffens/iStockphoto

America's Most Innovative Cities

To rank America's most innovative cities, we started with the top 100 metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S. and used data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to determine the number of patents per capita. We combined it with venture capital investment per capita from the National Venture Capital Association, along with those cities' ratios of high-tech, science and "creative" jobs from ZoomProspector.com and Payscale.com. We weighted patents higher than other categories because they are most directly tied to innovation. The results put Silicon Valley on top, with unexpected cities like Austin and Raleigh close behind.


Kent Steffens/iStockphoto

No. 1: San Jose, Calif.

Rankings (1 is highest)

Tech and science jobs: 1

Creative jobs: 1

Patents per capita: 1

Venture capital investment per capita: 1


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No. 2: Austin, Texas

Tech and science jobs: 5

Creative jobs: 7

Patents per capita: 2

Venture capital investment per capita: 8


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No. 3: Raleigh, N.C.

Tech and science jobs: 4

Creative jobs: 10

Patents per capita: 4

Venture capital investment per capita: 5


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No. 4: San Francisco, Calif.

Tech and science jobs: 6

Creative jobs: 9

Patents per capita: 7

Venture capital investment per capita: 2


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No. 5: Seattle, Wash.

Tech and science jobs: 9

Creative jobs: 4

Patents per capita: 6

Venture capital investment per capita: 6


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No. 6: San Diego, Calif.

Tech and science jobs: 13

Creative jobs: 8

Patents per capita: 12

Venture capital investment per capita: 4


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No. 7: Madison, Wisc.

Tech and science jobs: 3

Creative jobs: 5

Patents per capita: 9

Venture capital investment per capita: 33


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No. 8: Boston, Mass.

Tech and science jobs: 7

Creative jobs: 6

Patents per capita: 25

Venture capital investment per capita: 3


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No. 9: Provo, Utah

Tech and science jobs: 8

Creative jobs: 2

Patents per capita: 20

Venture capital investment per capita: 29


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No. 10: Portland, Ore.

Tech and science jobs: 27

Creative jobs: 22

Patents per capita: 10

Venture capital investment per capita: 27


Courtesy of the City of Palm Bay

No. 11: Palm Bay, Florida

Tech and science jobs: 20

Creative jobs: 13

Patents per capita: 14

Venture investment per capita: 38


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No. 12: Minneapolis, Minn.

Tech and science jobs: 16

Creative jobs: 12

Patents per capita: 29

Venture investment per capita: 15


Mark Segal/Getty Images

No. 13: Washington, D.C.

Tech and science jobs: 2

Creative jobs: 3

Patents per capita: 44

Venture investment per capita: 10


Richard Cummins/Getty Images

No. 14: Rochester, N.Y.

Tech and science jobs: 10

Creative jobs: 20

Patents per capita: 5

Venture investment per capita: 63


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No. 15: Albany, N.Y.

Tech and science jobs: 15

Creative jobs: 28

Patents per capita: 11

Venture investment per capita: 47


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No. 16: Boise, Idaho

Tech and science jobs: 35

Creative jobs: 48

Patents per capita: 3

Venture investment per capita: 28


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No. 17: Oxnard, Calif.

Tech and science jobs: 34

Creative jobs: 40

Patents per capita: 17

Venture investment per capita: 21


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No. 18: Denver, Colo.

Tech and science jobs: 28

Creative jobs: 14

Patents per capita: 39

Venture investment per capita: 13


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No. 19: Tucson, Ariz.

Tech and science jobs: 31

Creative jobs: 27

Patents per capita: 16

Venture investment per capita: 45


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No. 20: Bridgeport, Conn.

Tech and science jobs: 23

Creative jobs: 37

Patents per capita: 36

Venture investment per capita: 7