Innovation City Classifications

The Innovation Cities™ Index classifies all cities into 5 classes for innovation.

  • NEXUS
  • HUB
  • NODE
  • INFLUENCER
  • UPSTART

Each year since 2009, analyst classifications of all major global cities are released as the Innovation Cities™ Index (on this site).

The top two tiers cities are Nexus and Hub cities. Node cities are globally competitive. Definitions of each classification are available accompanying the year’s Index, and accompanying report.

Annual City Rankings

2thinknow analysts have ranked the top 25-30% of classified cities each year since 2009. In 2007 and 2008 the top 8-10 cities were ranked from less cities.

Annual City Awards

Trophies are available for the top tier cities > see Trophies.

Award Certificates are issued for all cities listed each year > see Certificates.