Mapping The World’s Top 50 Science And Technology Hubs

In 2023, the world experienced another wave of science and technology (S&T) innovation, from the introduction of the first over-the-counter birth control pill in the U.S. to the stunning growth of ChatGPT and artificial intelligence.

This map, via Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte, explores the world’s top 50 science and technology hubs leading these innovations based on data from the Global Innovation Index 2023. Hubs were ranked by their combined share of international patent applications and scientific publications.

East Asia Dominance in S&T

The world’s five most significant science and technology hubs are in East Asia.

The top-ranked Tokyo-Yokohama cluster made up just over 10% of all patent applications between 2018-2022.

Cluster	Country/Economy	Patent Applications	Scientific Publications
Tokyo-Yokohama	🇯🇵 Japan	127,418	115,020
Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou	🇨🇳/🇭🇰 China/Hong Kong	113,482	153,180
Seoul	🇰🇷 South Korea	63,447	133,604
Beijing	🇨🇳 China	38,067	279,485
Shanghai-Suzhou	🇨🇳 China	32,924	162,635
San Jose-San Francisco	🇺🇸 U.S.	47,269	58,575
Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto	🇯🇵 Japan	38,413	51,948
Boston-Cambridge	🇺🇸 U.S.	18,184	76,378
San Diego	🇺🇸 U.S.	23,261	20,928
New York City	🇺🇸 U.S.	13,838	74,849
Nanjing	🇨🇳 China	7,143	113,488
Paris	🇫🇷 France	15,176	61,692
Wuhan	🇨🇳 China	6,250	89,756
Hangzhou	🇨🇳 China	10,755	62,924
Nagoya	🇯🇵 Japan	17,736	16,091
Los Angeles,	🇺🇸 U.S.	11,556	44,058
Washington, DC–Baltimore	🇺🇸 U.S.	5,525	76,039
Daejeon	🇰🇷 South Korea	12,275	25,552
Xi’an	🇨🇳 China	1,786	86,937
London	🇬🇧 Great Britain	5,981	59,068
Seattle	🇺🇸 U.S.	11,472	20,322
Munich	🇩🇪 Germany	10,248	24,239
Qingdao	🇨🇳 China	7,286	39,745
Chengdu	🇨🇳 China	2,046	67,334
Cologne	🇩🇪 Germany	7,466	34,286
Amsterdam–Rotterdam	🇳🇱 Netherlands	4,230	52,864
Taipei–Hsinchu	🇹🇼 Taiwan	3,907	52,752
Houston	🇺🇸 U.S.	8,475	24,636
Stuttgart	🇩🇪 Germany	9,342	14,874
Tel Aviv–Jerusalem	🇮🇱 Israel	7,268	24,219
Moscow	🇷🇺 Russia	2,036	55,086
Chicago	🇺🇸 U.S.	5,763	32,343
Singapore	🇸🇬/🇲🇾 Singapore/Malaysia	4,861	36,803
Tehran	🇮🇷 Iran	249	63,113
Philadelphia	🇺🇸 U.S.	5,390	32,309
Tianjin	🇨🇳 China	1,267	53,680
Changsha	🇨🇳 China	1,149	52,768
Stockholm	🇸🇪 Sweden	6,069	19,984
Minneapolis	🇺🇸 U.S.	6,625	15,375
Hefei	🇨🇳 China	2,549	38,974
Eindhoven	🇳🇱 Netherlands	7,982	5,339
Melbourne	🇦🇺 Australia	2,126	40,056
Berlin	🇩🇪 Germany	3,624	30,464
Chongqing	🇨🇳 China	1,651	41,412
Frankfurt am Main	🇩🇪 Germany	5,410	18,590
Sydney	🇦🇺 Australia	2,539	33,695
Raleigh	🇺🇸 U.S.	3,057	30,206
Madrid	🇪🇸 Spain	1,580	38,849
Zürich	🇨🇭 Switzerland	3,759	24,437
Milan	🇮🇹 Italy	2,578	31,077

The first American cluster on the list, the San Francisco Bay Area, is home to major tech companies such as Adobe, eBay, Google, and PayPal.

Along with Cambridge in the United Kingdom, the San Francisco Bay Area is one of the most S&T-intensive clusters relative to overall population density.

For the first time, China topped the list of countries with the highest number of clusters among the top 100, having 24 total. The United States follows, with 21 clusters, then Germany with nine.

In addition, nearly every Chinese cluster rose in the rankings compared to last year, with only Beijing falling by one place.

São Paulo (Brazil); Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai, and Mumbai (India); Tehran (Islamic Republic of Iran); Istanbul and Ankara (Türkiye); and Moscow (Russian Federation) are the only middle-income economy clusters outside China.

According to the Global Innovation Index, the U.S. leads in research and development (R&D) expenditure, followed by China, Japan, Germany, and the Republic of Korea.