The Innovation Cities Program is based on a series of 162 Innovation Indicators. These represent a broad view of innovation in the economy and culturally; and cover:

• Food & Wine Industries
• Property Prices & wealth
• Mobility – through mass transit & individual options
• Cultural Exchange through students, business & tourism
• Media, Journalism & Censorship
• Arts & Cultural Museums & Galleries
• Music, Dance & Cultural Theatre
• Design & Media
• Scientists & Engineers
• Financial Services
• Start-up Facilities
• Shipping, Rail & Ports
• Internet & digital technologies
• Local Manufacturing
• Economic Health, Size & Trade Opportunities
• Domestic & Neighbouring Markets
• Global Connectivity
• Risk factors such as conflicts & public safety
• Strategic Influence

More detail > A full list of these are available in the ‘Innovation Cities Data Report 2009′ available for pre-order & shipping August 2009. The report also contains a full explanation of each indicator.

Cities Rankings. For the Innovation Cities Index – the city rankings released July 28, 2009 – we use this data as a basis for our analysis. At the time, the latest cut of this data was weighted for current trends, and applied to benchmark cities.

We then complete the rankings using comparative analysis techniques, adjusting to reflect relative scores. This is reduced to a 3 stage score out of 10, leading to an Index value out of 30 for Inspiration, Implementation & Market Access.